Thick Skinned

I have pretty thick skin, and I think if you’re going to be in this business, if you’re going to be an actor or  a writer, you better have a thick skin.–John Irving

Another trait of achievers and successful leaders is the ability to be thick skinned. It really doesn’t matter what business or profession your involved with, you’re going to have to deal with criticism and assault of negative people. Unfortunately, much of the time it comes from family and friends, which makes it much more difficult to endure. Many people are dream killers without even knowing that’s what their doing.

The thing to remember is that people are not saying no to you, they are just saying no to the idea. For most people, rejection is one of the toughest things to deal with. Another thing to remember is that the naysayers aren’t on your team and they don’t share your goals. They don’t see what you see, nor could they implement the vision if they did. They aren’t dream builders, just dream killers. The best way to cultivate a thick skinned mentality is to just close your ears to your critics. Keep your eyes on the dream.

As you’ve heard me say before, the more people tell me it won’t work or I can’t do something, the more it fires me up to go prove them wrong. Early in my insurance career, I really disliked making cold calls because I didn’t like people telling me no. As I became more successful and thick skinned, I started to look at it as a challenge. That’s another way to cultivate a thick skinned mentality. Now I don’t mind it a bit if someone is rude or tells me no. I just move on to the next one.

The same is true in my marketing company. There are many naysayers and people who criticize because of ignorance and not understanding the business model. You don’t know what you don’t know. I love to use it as an opportunity to educate and see if I can help people understand, but I will not allow anyone to affect my attitude in a negative way. I simply keep my eye on the goal so I can remain thick skinned and move on.  If you want to be successful in any business or profession, you better learn to be thick skinned. You can do it to.

Have an awesome day.

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