If you have no critics, you’ll likely have no success.
—
Malcolm X
Malcolm X
About Matt Linderman
Now: The creator of Vooza, "the Spinal Tap of startups." Previously: Employee #1 at 37signals and co-author of the books Rework and Getting Real.Read all of Matt Linderman’s posts, and follow Matt Linderman on Twitter.
Quoted by Matt Linderman on July 22 2010. There are 12 comments.
Michael 22 Jul 10
“If you have too many critics, you’ll get shot.”
-Malcolm X
Adim 22 Jul 10
Like Riley Freeman in the Boondocks Cartoon said. If you dont have haters you must be doing something wrong. :-)
Phil Willis 22 Jul 10
The fear of what other people say is one of the most limiting forces in the world today.
Once you get over that – it’s amazing how much you can achieve.
Great post.
Jal 22 Jul 10
“When people start speaking against you, you are going on the right track.” – Dhirubhai Ambani, Founder Reliance Group of Industries
Rob 23 Jul 10
nice post!
@Phil: Been a huge limiting force all my life, still is, fortunately im still really young though so there’s nothing really off with the picture (hopefully!). =]
Rob 23 Jul 10
PS I really need to pre-read my posts, wasn’t trying to make out I was “extremely young” lol.
Jimmy Chan 23 Jul 10
Critics like what people want from you for them. Some good, mostly not.
Just remember what Rework told me. Don’t write it down. If there’re critics that you keep getting that’s a sign that you need it.
Johan Brook 23 Jul 10
Another, quite similar, is:
“If you have no enemies, you’ll likely have no persona”.
- Unknown guy
DRoss 23 Jul 10
Funny. I found this exact quote in a fortune cookie over a year ago and put it on my fridge.
DRoss 23 Jul 10
Not that I’m eating tons of fortune cookies but one other I just added to the fridge says “All things are difficult before they are easy”.
Peregrine Solus 24 Jul 10
If you have no critics, you’ll likely have no success.
Unless, of course, you are abe to succeed without critics.
In which case, it doesn’t matter how many critics you have.
But, then again, you could fail, despite having a lot of critics.
Or, you could fail even if you have the correct amount of critics.
And, you could fail even if you have no critics at all.
I’ve changed my mind.
If you have no critics, you are probably as likely to succeed as fail.
It might be more up to you, than it is up to your critics.
I hope a lot of you are critical of my comment.
This text box is acting hinky.
patrick 29 Jul 10
i like aristotle’s take:
if you want to avoid criticism – say nothing, do nothing, be nothing
This discussion is closed.