Putting your thoughts on the internet has many benefits. You can build a business, communicate with people on the other side of the world, improve your thinking and generate unique opportunities that wouldn’t have been available to you even 20 years ago.
But it also has its negatives.
It exposes you to more people who think that your idea is stupid and that you’re an idiot for thinking it.
If you walk down your high street, handing out flyers with your idea printed on, you might meet 100 people.
15 people love it, 5 hate it, and 80 don’t care either way.
On the internet, 100 becomes millions, potentially billions.
If the same ratio holds, that’s millions of people who love your idea.
And millions of people who hate it.
Even worse, they have a tool for rapid, public feedback. And the nature of social networks means that they can share it with followers who think the same and are itching to jump on the bandwagon.
So what do we do?
We can choose abstinence. We can let our fear of negative feedback stop us from creating in the first place. We can play it safe and never seek out the good because of the bad.
But guess what? Abstinence doesn’t work.
When you write, when you publish podcasts and upload videos, you WILL get negative feedback.
The good kind will be constructive. This is rare.
The bad kind will attack you personally. This is common.
Instead, we can think of negative comments as the cost of doing business.
It’s the tax we pay for harvesting the fruits of the internet. As long as the fruits outweigh the tax, publishing on the internet is the correct choice.
It’s not always an easy one though.
Words hurt. They have impact.
But if you keep your focus on the benefits, the negatives will fade away.