When Success Gets Personal

Did you know that 87% of statistics are made up on the spot? With that disclaimer out of the way, I shall proceed…

A friend of mine teaches classes at a massage school. She’s been teaching classes for years and years, and recently got one poor evaluation from one student. She was NOT a happy camper.

And I could relate, because the more people I meet, and the more events I do, the more feedback I get – both positive and negative. The negative always seems more powerful.

With the hopes of providing a little perspective, I shared with her a statistic I made up to help me deal with some of the negativity. It goes like this: if you are doing your work with integrity –

  • 5% of all people are going to not like you – that’s just the way it goes.
  • When you know 100 people, that percentage equals 5 people. When you have access to 1000 people, that’s 50 people. When you get exposure to 2000 people, that’s 100 people.
  • Realize that even though the number changes, the percentage doesn’t, and accept it.

So as you are succeeding, expanding your reach, and increasing your exposure – more people will not like you. It’s a fact. But remember…

  • For every 5 who don’t like you, 95 appreciate you. Listen to them instead.
  • People who aim low, and have few successes have very few critics, because no one has ever heard of them.
  • Critics can be our best teachers. Remember not to cast them in the role of the villain: learn what you can from them, treat them with respect, and let them go.

Even though my statistic is 96.7% fictional, I hope you get my point!

Mary Cravets

Founder Mary Cravets started Simply Get Clients because she saw small business owners complicating growing their businesses. Or falling victim to the "build it and they will come" myth. So she developed the simple structure to cut through all the noise of social media, "experts", online funnels, advertising and more to focus on the central problem of business owners: getting more clients. And you know what? There is NOT a one-size-fits-all solution.

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  1. lisachell says

    Oh, the truth in this. Thanks Mary. When I first started getting evaluations, I’d make my husband go through them first. Now I have no attachment other than to learn from them. Great blogs posts. Keep them coming!
    Lisa