Taking Criticism | Just Reflections - Issue #13
"Listen and be open, but don't let anybody tell you who you are." — Jeff Bezos
Taking criticism gracefully is a difficult thing, especially when that criticism is unwarranted. A couple of days ago, the billionaire that the internet loves to hate, Jeff Bezos, tweeted a minor flex about how Amazon has grown to be one of the world's most successful companies despite all the criticism they've had to endure.
Check the comments if you want to see the "love" that's out there for Mr Bezos. Shortly after the tweet, Justin Bariso from Inc.com wrote this piece about what we can learn from dear ole Jeff about taking criticism.
It's a really short piece, but it's really fascinating how much Justin drew from it. If you need some convincing, here's a small quote from the article.
"Negative feedback is like a freshly mined diamond. To the naked eye, it's ugly. But if you cut it and polish it, viewing the criticism not as an attack, but as potentially valuable, you can use it to improve and grow. Much like how a diamond cutter takes a raw diamond and turns it into something beautiful, you can learn to extract the benefits of criticism." — Justin Bariso, Inc.com
It looks like the other billionaire that the internet loves to hate, Mark Zuckerberg, has a similar approach to dealing with criticism — what is it about these tech billionaires? Jim Connolly shares one instance of Mark Zuckerberg's response to criticism that illustrates this point.
Deal with criticism, like Mark Zuckerberg - Jim's Marketing Blog
Facebook and Amazon are on the news every other week and it's rarely good news. So I found it really interesting to see these two outlines of how their leaders deal with the constant criticism. I think there's certainly something for all of us to learn. Listen and be open to learning, but stay true to your goals. Have some flexible rigidity! Although that rigidity could be why they're so unpopular. There's something for you to think about. Enjoy your week.
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I hope I’ve given you something to think about this week and I wish you ever-increasing curiosity.
Until next week.
BK
