When You’re Building A Business, Here’s One Thing To Avoid
When you’re building a business, be careful who you talk to.
Negativity is a disease, and it can be contagious.
You know how the flu can spread through a household and take down a whole family, right? Well, negativity can do the same damn thing.
Negativity can run through a family’s bloodline. It can pass from one generation to the next and keep trickling down and spreading out to people who aren’t related.
It can spill out to friends, lovers and casual acquaintances.
When you’re building your business, negativity is something you need to steer clear of because it’s poisonous. And to do that, you may have to stop discussing your goals with some of the people who are closest to you.
Recognizing Negativity in Your Circle
You may not want to see negativity in your family or your friends. But if you’re going to escape the net, stay out of it and succeed at building a business, you may have to face some tough truths about the people around you.
And one of those truths is that some people embrace the struggle.
Maybe it’s someone who has been your best friend since childhood. She grew up on welfare, started her adult life on welfare, and now she’s raising children on welfare.
For her, that’s how life goes.
Or there may be the brother or boyfriend who is always broke. Yeah, he works but he never has any money and is always borrowing and owing.
Yet, he’s not doing anything to make his situation better.
And then, there are the people who believe the circumstances you’re born into will forever confine you to the bottom tier.
If you’re black, a woman, an immigrant, the son of a farmer…whatever, your fate is sealed. So, if you’re scraping by, you better hold your head down and consider yourself lucky. Accept life for what it is.
Do you really expect people like this to support your creative goals?
Are you really, really expecting people who live below their potential to believe that you can live up to yours?
Do you think they’re going to say, Yes I believe in you. Me, I don’t have what it takes. But I want to see you make it. So anything you need just let me know.
Don’t wait for it.
Stop Seeking Advice From Negative People
When people live hopelessly, their hopelessness extends to everybody.
They don’t view what they go through as personal. They don’t think that results can change based on the choices you make.
For them, you’re either up there or you’re down here. And there’s no need wasting your time trying to get somewhere you don’t belong.
It’s natural to want to talk to the people closest to you about what you’re doing, but when those people have a negative outlook, they aren’t the ones you should approach to discuss building your business.
Negative people aren’t good sources of advice or feedback.
When you’re building a business, limit your exposure to anyone who is negative. No matter who it is.
When you’re fighting every day to make things happen, negativity can seep in and set you back. Or worse, negativity can raise doubt and cause you to give up .
If you want to succeed, surround yourself with people who’re where you want to be and who are headed where you’re trying to go.
If you don’t have people like that around you, find some. Network in creative circles online and in person. Watch YouTube videos. And last but not least, read.
