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When creating a product or service for public consumption, the creator, author, or inventor, does the best he or she can to ensure that the product of service in question is of the highest quality. Proofing, quality control, cross-checking, etc is performed, not only at the personal level, but, hopefully, with the help of others.

Best Friends = Worst Enemy for Your Product

Your immediate circle of influence (your family, friends, network, etc) has developed a relationship with you, either on a personal or professional level. They want you to succeed, but, at the same time, they don’t want you to get hurt.

Sure if there is a glaring problem or concern, they’ll bring it to your attention, but smaller issues, perhaps choices of taste, can be glossed over.

No need to bring that up.

It’s not a big deal.

I’ll get with him later about it.

While your friends and family do have your best interests at heart, for the most part, they cannot be counted on to give critical and, when needed, spirit crushing criticism.

You Might Want to Listen to That Loud Mouth A**Hole

There are millions of critics in the world. You’re a critic, I’m a critic, she’s a critic, he’s a critic. We see and experience products and services on a daily basis, but how much feedback do you give?

Have you ever had a really bad meal at a restaurant? I’m not talking about vomit on a plate bad, but bad enough that you wouldn’t come back to that restaurant? Did you express your concerns to the staff, or at the least fill out a comment card? I’m betting you didn’t.

Feedback is vital in all things, personal and professional. Simply put, if you don’t know that you’re doing something wrong or something is broken, how can you fix it?

Next time you get some jerk mouthing off about something you did or didn’t do, take a step back instead of ignoring him. Ask yourself these questions:

• Where is he coming from? Does he actually have experience or knowledge in this and might ACTUALLY know something?
• Why is he pointing this out? If he knows what he’s talking about, could he possibly really be trying to help you?

Sometimes a critic’s lack of tact can stand in the way of you making a vital improvement. Also take into account that if the criticism is done via text, there’s a chance that you might be reading more into the comment than was originally emoted.

Step Up and Have an Open Mind

Next time you get that yell from the peanut gallery, don’t dismiss it out of hand. Take a deep breath and look to see if there’s actually an opportunity buried in that pile of dung thrown at you. Shift through it, and you might just find a diamond; but look at the source first. Sometimes, a pile of dung is just a pile of dung.

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