A brief spoken piece by Russ Lowry arguing that developing an 'immunity to criticism' is an essential skill when starting a new business, job, or venture. He advises ignoring negative opinions from those who "don't matter," focusing on the small set of people whose views count (spouse, parents), and letting success ("the scoreboard") prove critics wrong.
Today we're going to talk about an important skill that is often not discussed, and that's the immunity to criticism. So whenever you're starting, say, a new business, maybe a new job, you tell your friends, they're like, you can't do that or you're doing it. People say, you shouldn't be doing that. You're not good enough. Don't try that crazy marketing. Don't try this or that. Fuck them, who cares? The immunity to criticism when others are criticizing what you're doing, especially others who don't really matter, is a unique skill that you possess, and it stops a lot of people in their tracks when they're trying to do something. Lots of times in my life, people said I couldn't do something, and that just fuels the fire. So that's a very important skill for you to learn going forward. Especially, like I said, if you want to start your own business, even going off on some other new job venture or getting some education, don't listen to people that are negative because they're not walking in your shoes. And so many people are jealous. So many people are scared, they throw arrows at you that it just doesn't matter. So don't listen to what they say. That immunity to their criticism is very, very important for your own mental health. Because like I said, frankly, what they think doesn't matter. There's a handful of people who matter. Your spouse, maybe your parents, like me, but everyone else, it doesn't matter. And then when you come out of that and you're winning on the other side, you can show by your actions. Like we say in sports, the proof's on the scoreboard. You know, watch the scoreboard. We'll see how that works out.
