Trolls and other losers

Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I have come to the realization of a number of facts, some of which I will share with you today. Instead of seeing these things negatively, people saying bad things about you or your products/services actually represents a fantastic opportunity!

Jealousy

When ever something “new” come onto the main consciousness of many people, the first thing they do is reject it even when this act completely defies logic. For example, if you start a new business and you all of a sudden have a number of people calling you a loser, that you will never amount to anything or worse, try everything in their limited powers of persuasion to convince you that everything will fail. What they are really telling you is “Geez… I wish I thought of that” followed by “Well, I’ll be damned if you succeed at something I -could- have but chose not to. In other words, the people out there with the greatest angst about you are the very people who are extremely jealous of your ambition and willingness to succeed where others haven’t.

YOU WANT LOSERS!

If you are developing something that sparks no emotion even in those who wish for your spiraling downfall it means one of two things, these losers either have no clue what you are doing or worse, you haven’t hit their “jealousy” buttons. Why is this bad? Well, it means that the general public, those who have a neutral stance on your success or or failure may also have the same blahze reaction to this idea as well. The quickest death of a company is indifference, you can succeed with huge negative and positive reaction but neutral sparks a quick death. Essentially, you WANT to receive a reaction - at both extremes, otherwise, you may be going down a dead-end.

YOU WANT TROLLS

The difference between a loser and a troll is quite simple, one usually uses their reputation and contacts to bring you down publicly while the other hides behind the anonymity of the internet to speed-up your failure. Losers are easy to deal with, if you have logic on your site, stand-up for yourself, present the facts (and only the facts) without any negative emotion or “talking-down” type behavior and generally losers will slowly fade into the background. Of course, you have to thank these losers because usually they bring-up a lot of attention to your cause which you may not have had otherwise. A troll on the other hand, well, you need to deal with them in a respectful manner now matter what they have said or done as, let’s be honest, you don’t know who they are or the possible influence they may have on you. I have found the easiest way to get rid of them is with a quick message acknowledging their “grief”, saying how you don’t agree with them and essentially telling them you will no longer participate in their games once you have summed-up a reply. Trolls need a reaction to succeed, don’t give them this pleasure and usually they will fade into the background as well.

Summarize

I know it’s tough to hold back your emotions and especially your tongue when attacked, but from my experience, if you handle it in a very civil manner and always maintain a certain state of decorum, others will come to realize that you where wronged and you will WIN! Every actions has a reaction, by blunting your reaction, there is nothing left to react against, as such, a developing negative situation can quickly be dissolved with little grief.

The Bottom Line

Trolls and losers are an indication of success, NOT FAILURE!