Reputation: How to deal with Bashers

I got bashed

Recently, I wrote a blogpost titled The Government should pay entrepreneurs a very low salary to save the economy. I wasn’t saying that this plan is 100% correct, but it seemed logical to me, so I wanted to put it out there to see what people think about it. At least I had some support from a Stanford Researcher and an Ex Venture Capitalist and BCG Consultant.

After a while, this professor from Belmont University Jeff Cornwall wrote a blogpost about how terrible and out of my mind I was. Shortly after, a lot of his readers started mass commenting on my blog and his blog saying they are “disgusted” and that I’m promoting socialism (note: I am not suggesting the government fund those who are unproductive…I am suggesting the government make it possible for more people to create jobs and enhance a form of capitalism).

What do you do when that happens?

11 Tips to turn the table around and make bashers supporters

  1. Thank them for their time and effort
  2. Apologize for things that you clearly did wrong or by mistake
  3. Address every single one of them
  4. Be polite
  5. Ask them to specify the things they are bashing about (most will just throw vague insults without clarifying why they are insulting)
  6. For those who actually explain, clarify all the misunderstandings or misconceptions
  7. Address your fundamental differences, but don’t be an jerk about it
  8. NEVER become emotional
  9. Stay cheerful
  10. Thank them at the end and encourage more constructive criticism
  11. Don’t be shady

I have seen forum threads that were pretty much devoted to bashing me anonymously. I pretty much used these exact tips and dealt with the “trolls” straight on. After 2 long replies addressing every single person, I ended up with only supporters in the forum and the bashers almost felt embarrassed to say more (since the most 2nd response addressed their first reply attempt)

Gary Vaynerchuck also had a crisis where his website got hacked and redirected to a porn site. He also managed it in a way that helped him gain more followers that respect him.

Your reputation is one of your biggest assets. It’s your job to guard it with your life.

 

(Redirected) Vertical Networking and The Pit


Chou Notes:

Today I talk about Vertical Networking and why I think it’s more meaningful than Horizontal Networking. Making others more successful in your network can be more meaningful than constantly meeting new people.

If you were all stuck in a pit, helping people out of it would benefit you more than stepping on someone’s shoulders.

How to be known by Influential People using Twitter Lists

Influential people are generally too busy with their emails, meetings, tweets etc

There are always benefits when more influential people know about you and think positively of you. If they like you, they are able to give you shootouts, advice, connections, and all that good stuff. However, it’s often very difficult to get their attention since they’re always bombarded with all sorts of things.

Twitter creates that opportunity for you to contact them instantly. But still, you’ve tweeted out to them before, and either they completely ignored you, or they responded back, made you feel great, and you know they forgot about you right after.

Engage your followers those you follow

Most advice out there tell you to engage your followers. I can’t agree more with that. However, if you want to get non-followers to know who you are (read: not to “follow” you), you’ll need to do more than that.

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The non-superman non-excuse

Non-Excuse

No one likes excuses…besides their creator

Often times when someone did their tasks incorrectly and it was pointed out to them, the person would blame it on their tools or environment. It could be pretty frustrating when you are working with people like that and their work/attitudes directly impact how you do.

When that happens, instead of just saying “That’s just an excuse!” and create an emotional response (these RARELY solve your problems and they’ve managed to bring you down to their level of negativity), I find it useful to ask, “I understand that. But is it humanly possible for a normal person to do this correctly, even with these obstacles?” If their response is “No! That’s not possible for anyone to do it!”, then either you should probably drop what your team is doing, or find someone else to work with.

But the chances are their responses will be “Yes.”

Making people understand is better than making people feel guilty

I then followup with, “Then is it possible for to you do it correctly, even with these obstacles?” At this point, most people would say yes too and understand that it’s ultimately up to them to overcome these problems and it’s pointless focusing on the obstacles and excuses. It’s humanly possible for non-geniuses to do it. You can do it too.

The non-excuse is on you

While we realize this is a good way to shut people up and stop them from complaining, it’s also a good idea to apply it to ourselves. When we face obstacles and failures in our lives, instead of focusing why we couldn’t do it, we should again think, “is this humanly possible for a normal person?” And if the answer is yes, stop the complaining and just get it done.

Being cautious can be useful for in life. But being negative creates value for no one.

Lifestyle Gamification: Having a Strong Core is your most Valuable Asset

Gamification Strong Core

Your Core determines your Life

It all starts here. Your Core. Without your core, you are easily swayed by others, you become a product of conformity, and you cannot be a leader. Your Core is what stops you from being an NPC (Non-playable character) and allows you to become the Hero. (Here’s my hero btw)

Have you ever talked to someone and you instantly felt that there was something about the person that made him/her respectable or even intimidating? And that person may not be very physically large, particularly good looking, and he hasn’t said enough things for you to truly conclude that he is highly intelligent. Nevertheless, it seems like he is really smart, knows what he is talking about, and you can really rely on him. That is usually because he has a strong Core. He believes and trusts in himself, and that conviction spreads to others.

My own story on Lifestyle Gamification and Discovering the Core

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How to impress everyone by just driving around

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People have often asked me how come I know so much about the business world when I am so young. It seemed like I could hold very sophisticated conversations with people twice (and sometimes thrice) my age, and end up in a situation where both sides learned something valuable. My honest answer to them is, “I drive a lot.”

Hmmm….what does driving a lot have anything to do with being knowledgeable or being a good leader? Isn’t driving just a waste of time?

The answer is podcasts.

Upon retrospection, a majority of my knowledge and education actually came from business or industry podcasts. I can seriously say that I have learned more useful things from my podcasts than my 3 years of studying International Economics at UCLA. I also learned a lot by reading books, blogposts and articles online, but they had high opportunity costs and I couldn’t afford to do it on a daily basis due to the scarcity of time.

However, podcasts are great because you can be doing all kinds of stuff while listening to them. You could be working out, waiting for a friend, shopping, or you could just be driving around. You can be doing all these mundane tasks, but at the same time, absorb world class information and knowledge.

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Lifestyle Gamification Coaching: helping you master the Game of Life

Power

Lifestyle Gamification Coaching: Life Coaching for highly motivated and ambitious individuals

Lifestyle Gamification Coaching. That’s basically teaching people how to become powerful in whatever fields they are in and things they care about. It is similar to the common Life Coaching, but more geared towards ambitious individuals who does not just want to live a comfortable and stable life but want to become the best in what they do and become influential and impactful in this world.

This would be an extension to the Lifestyle Gamification concepts that I created in 2005. (Check here to see my presentation at Google on it)

Is Power Bad?

I first want to make a disclaimer that “Power” has a slightly negative connotation, as people say “power corrupts” and how the rule of nature is the “powerful exploiting the weak.” However, I believe power itself is neutral.

Power just allows one to make something happen, so it could be used to do extreme good, or extreme evil. In the context of this blog, Power simply means being resourceful and influential enough to create an impact in whatever you care about.

Finally, since I like to draw analogies from the gaming world to this world, Power is just a common phrase in being really strong at something (and isn’t that where a lot of passions lie? Many people couldn’t do what they want in the real world so they decide to be a hero in a virtual world).

Again, I am not teaching you how to gain “freedom” or create passive income that allows you to chill at the beach all day. Sure, these would be very useful in becoming powerful, but that’s not the end goal. The goal is not to let you live a “free” life but to let you live a “fulfilling” life. It’s the life of “With great power, comes great responsibilities.”

If you were playing a game and you had absolute “freedom” in running around, going to town, the fields, eat and buy stuff, but you don’t have a mission, would that be fulfilling? Probably not.

This blog will be about how to beat the game.

Continue reading Lifestyle Gamification Coaching: helping you master the Game of Life