Customer Focus
Jason November 9th, 2006
Mark Cuban had an excellent post on customer focus this past Tuesday…
Archive for November, 2006
Fear Is The Mind-Killer
Jason November 6th, 2006
Those of you who are “Dune” fans get it. Science-fiction aside, how true this statement is.
While “fear” in and of itself is a huge topic that I’m sure will be revisited, there’s one particular kind of fear I’d like to address now:
Fear of other people’s opinions.
Or, in more common terms, fear of what other people might think. As simple as this sounds, it’s one of the first stumbling blocks that most people encounter when they decide to engage on a path of personal growth and success. There are a myriad of reasons for this, both internal and external. The old “crabs in a bucket” analogy, of course, comes to mind.
Let me say I’m not of the mindset that we just shouldn’t care what anyone thinks. It’s just not that simple. However, we should only care what others think insofar as we don’t take it personally. Other people’s opinions must not negatively affect our self-esteem or sense of self-worth. That, in truth, is the source of our fear. As with all fears, the fear of others, or their thoughts, is a self-preservation reflex. It’s the old, “fight or flight” instinct.
When working to dissolve fears, remember the three “F”s. Fear, Fact, Faith… Fear is easily replacable by either of the other two.
In this case, the Fact is that ultimately, there’s nothing that another person’s attitudes or opinions can do to harm you, unless you allow them to. The Faith is, you have everything you need to fulfill your purpose within you, exactly as you are, and you’re already on your way.
But, let’s take the next step, beyond mere dissolution of the illusion of fear. Let’s turn it into something that actually helps us.
Economy is largely driven, in a sense, by people’s opinions. Their likes and dislikes, tastes, concepts, values, and so on. This goes back to my previous post about finding a way to serve. Find a need (or satisfy an opinion), and fill it. If you serve enough people, and organize that service into an industry, everyone wins. So, pay attention to criticism, but don’t harbor it. Take note of suggestion, but don’t take it personally. Be ready to recognize these signals of possible improvement in any situation.
Learn to recognize the difference between constructive criticism, and just plain nastiness. Remember, most of the time, when someone is verbally attacking you, they’re really attacking an aspect of themselves that they may percieve in you that is being reflected back to them. (Ya… that’s a big one, for expansion in another post.)
The point is, maintain your center, and observe. Everyone around us is a teacher and a master in disguise. From all situations, we can learn, grow, and apply that knowledge to pursue even greater success in our endeavours. And, most of what we learn from managing criticism is how to maintain our calm confidence in the face of adversity… and that’s a big, important lesson that anyone can improve upon.