Screw it, let's do it

Sir Richard Branson, my namesake and a man I greatly admire

Some people are only too willing to tell you you can't do something or your ideas are stupid. All too often, we listen and scrap a perfectly good idea.

Why? Are we really sure that we can't do it, or are we listening to people who are sure that they can't do it? There's a huge difference.

I love receiving constructive criticism - it's helpful and can guide one off the right track onto the right one. But constructive is the key word.

Criticism is easy

It's easy to criticize something or somebody, but it's harder to make it constructive. To make it constructive, we need to be able to offer solutions, advice, tips and experience. People who inspire can do this because they have experience, talent and results to back up what they are saying. That's why they inspire people, obviously.

Then there are those that mock. You'll meet overweight, inactive people telling you that you shouldn't run because it's bad for your joints or that the guy who invented jogging died of a heart attack while jogging. You'll hear people stuck in jobs they hate dismissing your entrepreneurial ideas because only rich people become entrepreneurs.

Sadly, that kind of person can have a powerful effect. They can convince you that you're not good enough, it's too risky, you'll hurt yourself, it'll never work...

You can listen to them. I did. But I now regret it.

I'd rather pay attention to those who inspire by doing rather than saying. That's why I admire people like Richard Branson, a man who created a succession of successful enterprises despite lots of people telling him they would fail. This is the kind of person I'd love to sit and talk to - a person who can point out the pitfalls but prepare you to avoid them.

That's much better than just focusing on the negatives.

Going into 2012 with some fresh ideas and a fresh perspective, Sir Richard's motto keeps popping into my head:

Screw it, let's do it.

We can spend our lives listening to the naysayers and mockers - those who delight in seeing us fail - or we can decide to screw them, believe in ourselves, and pay more attention to the people telling us to give it a shot, that we've got talent of our own and we should be using it.

Comments

[Linda]

Very nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!