Handling Criticism

A few days back when I was delivering a talk on Entrepreneurship at a business school, one mentee asked me an interesting question. He asked, ''how should we deal with criticism?''. 

Honestly, I didn't have any specific answer, so instead of telling him something which was nonsense (but often sounds good), I shared something I read recently. 

During an interview with SUCCESS magazine,  Mario

Gabriele Andretti (is an Italian-born American former racing driver, one of the most successful Americans in the history) was asked for his number one tip for success in race car driving. He said, “Don’t look at the wall. Your car goes where your eyes go.”

How true this is. When we are driving at 150 mph, we need to focus on the road in front of us. If we look at the wall, then we’ll end up hitting it.

I also believe that criticism and negativity from other people are like a wall. And if we focus on it, then we’ll run right into it. Doubt creates a huge mountain, but, our faith tunnels through that. It's natural to get blocked by negative emotions, anger, and self-doubt but it is important to see them as a wall, not the road. Our mind will go where our attention is focused. If we keep thinking about the negativity, you will lose creativity. Negativity and Creativity are interlinked, you see. Criticism and negativity don’t prevent us from reaching the finish line, but they can certainly distract all of us from it.

We can write whatever we want but it has to be embedded in our nature to keep the focus, and self-belief, even if no one is believing you. If one can practice that and keep improving, there's no doubt that one can avoid hitting the wall. 

There's a saying that ''you can't please everyone'', and it's absolutely true.