A lot of what you can find online is written by people who don't have the truth, and as long as we buy the evening papers when there's something negative on the billboards, it'll stay that way. Critics often speak up about things they don't know much about, and then it sounds pretty clumsy.
”The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about, while refusing to investigate the subject.” -Unknown
Most people get defensive or start doubting when someone says they've read something negative online. Since you work in or with a company, there are negative things on Google. Either it's someone who's unhappy about something, someone who gets attention by doing it, or it's about them having something else to market. Many people don't understand that, and it's about time someone pointed it out. A good question is ”Is it a fairy tale or is it the truth?” – Let me come back to that.
The inspiration for these posts about trolls and critics comes from Ray Higdon (link) and I also appreciate his way of handling this objection in recruiting meetings: ”I saw something on Google about you and it wasn't positive…” – ”Good. I was thinking we should talk about that. I have to ask you a question: if you're that easily influenced by people you don't know who have an opinion that doesn't line up with what you want to do, then I don't think this is going to work for you.”
No matter what you want to do in life, you'll meet resistance. Not everyone is going to love what you do. Either you keep adapting to everyone else and therefore never move forward, or you stand up for something.
Recently I sat in a meeting with a person who had heard a lot of negative things about a business that existed in the 90s. I asked, out of curiosity, where the information came from, since I know people who worked with it back then, but she couldn't answer that. Later, when we (I) dug into it, it turned out these were opinions based on false premises with no grounding in reality. She had heard the fairy tale, but she hadn't heard the truth.
So it was all a matter of interpretation, and what she was angry about simply wasn't true. That made me stop and think. When I hear something, I should always ask myself the question: ”Is it a fairy tale or is it true?
The world is full of people who love to dig into things that don't necessarily have to be true. Some like to create drama, others are envious or like conspiracy theories. Personally, I don't stand at the window and get provoked because my neighbour has a new car and decide he must be working off the books. I'd rather have lunch with him and be inspired by his success.
Even though I can get worked up by provocation, I heard from a coach many years ago that whatever relationship it is, you sometimes need to ask yourself: ”Do I want to be right or be happy?”. Orrin Woodward puts it very well too: ”I won every argument but nobody wanted to work with me.”
I saw a quote a while back: ”Arguing with some people is like playing chess with a pigeon. It doesn't matter if you're the one winning, they'll still knock over some pieces, crap on the board and strut around like they won.”
Today you can google anything and find that it's a scam, because uneducated people believe it is. Some have to unlearn what they thought they'd learned from Google before they can take in the truth, and some don't even want to know.
”There is no success peak that you can reach where you don’t have haters or people that believe you shouldn’t be where you are.” – Ray Higdon
Every time you or someone you know reads a gossip forum, the trolls have won and the fairy tale grows. Think of the Native American chief telling his grandchild that everyone has two wolves inside them, a good one and an evil one. Which one wins? – The one you feed.
The truth is that people don't become negative about direct selling, they become negative about direct sellers. People who've come into the business the wrong way and do crazy things (outside the system, because of a lack of training) affect all of us negatively. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves and others, and to go out and show that good always wins.
Stick to the truth. They won't remember how fast you grew, they'll remember how well you built. Art Jonak said at the Mastermind Event in Orlando last autumn: ”Assume that every meeting you sit in is being recorded and will be used against you in court.”
”Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martins
