Think of any consequential person you can think of.
A president like Eisenhower.
A novelist like Ernest Hemingway or J.K. Rowling.
A business leader like Steve Jobs or (back in the day) Lee Iacocca.
A religious leader like Mother Teresa or even Jesus.
Pick anyone who actually moved the needle in history. Let me guarantee you something.
They were criticized. They were mocked. They were misunderstood. They were hated.
You do not get to impact the world without generating resistance. It’s impossible.
The wider your influence, the louder the blowback.
You can play small. Stay comfortable. Keep your opinions quiet. Keep your ambition muted. And guess what? You’ll still get criticized by the handful of losers in your immediate orbit.
Or you can decide to go big and embrace the 50% of people who are going to hate you for just being you.
So go build something real. Say something honest. Stand for something clear. Create something that forces people to react.
And when you do? You won’t just get criticism. You’ll get a swarm of monkeys throwing poo at you.
That’s the tax.
If you’re doing anything meaningful, you’re going to pull small-minded critics out of their caves.
Nobody throws rocks at parked cars.
So if you’ve got a trail of backbiting, bitter commentators following you around? Good.
That probably means you’re moving. However, most of us don’t. Even me.
It just means the game we are playing still is so small that we get ignored. Play big and you’ll get attacked.
Either way, somebody’s talking. Might as well make it worth their time.