The Guaranteed Way To Completely Avoid Criticism

Hey there!

How does it feel to be criticized? Even when you invite it, it’s still sometimes hard to take. You say, “I welcome your comments,” and when someone does…it still stings a bit.

I recently heard a speaker, with a quote he attributed to Aristotle, lay out the three things you need to do to never feel the pain of a critical comment.

Here they are in a nutshell. Oh, and here’s who actually said it.

PS: To celebrate 100 episodes, I’m going to hold a virtual AMA – an “Ask Me Anything” session – for that particular video. I’ll be looking through all the comments you’ve left for the first 99 videos, and grabbing any really good questions you might have and answering them. You can also “ask me anything” via email: just send your question to me, at [email protected], with the letters AMA in the subject line. I’ll try to answer all the questions I get – and it can be about anything you want to know about: VO, acting, on-camera presence, internet marketing, productivity, radio, TV, film, even the process and products I use to put out these videos.

(Click/tap ↑↑↑↑↑↑ that red YouTube button to subscribe to my channel. You’ll get notified when I release new videos.)

Hope this helps!

David

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hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and the other day I put out a video
talking about how big groups often
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increase the possibility that somebody
is going to criticize your idea sort of
you know give you a devil’s advocate
view smaller groups are better by
yourself is better dreaming on your own
is better and I got some great great
questions and I’m going to talk about
those questions in just a moment but I
wonder how it feels to have that
criticism made vocal made public given
to you even if you say you know I invite
your comments invite your invite your
criticism give me your ideas when
somebody does criticize you how does
that feel consisting a little bit even
if you’ve asked for it even if you said
I welcome your comments and criticism it
still hurts sometimes when people give
you even constructive criticism and the
other day I heard a speaker addressed
this and he attributed it to the the
philosopher Aristotle so I went looking
for it just to make sure I was gonna get
because that’s what I do I want to make
sure I get it right
so I went looking for and I kept using
Aristotle in the search and it turns out
Aristotle didn’t say this at all but
what was said was if you don’t want to
be criticized
then do nothing say nothing and be
nothing
pretty good advice we’ll talk about it
in just a second but it turns out it
wasn’t Aristotle that said it there was
a man by the name of Elbert Hubbard that
was a writer in the late 1800s and in
this I found this by the way on us on a
great little site called quote
investigator com it’s my new favorite
site and basically it’s kind of like the
Snopes of of attribution like when you
hear a great saying and it says you know
William Henry Hudson or whatever it says
if you go to quote investigator they’ll
actually tell you whether or not that
attribution is true and they do the
research there’s some guy who’s got an
even bigger job than I do and he and his
staff does the research and figures it
out anyway this guy named Albert Hubbard
wrote a series of short essays titled
little journeys to the homes of American
statesmen where he interviewed people
that were popular and as elected
officials as politicians as statesmen
etc and he wrote a piece about an
abolitionist politician William H Seward
who you might remember from Seward’s
folly that was the purchase of Alaska he
noted that he was the target of an
assassination attempt
and Hubbard suggested in that writing
that one must be able to brave censure
and threats and criticism and danger to
live a full and meaningful life and
that’s really what that phrase is all
about if you don’t take any risks you
don’t do anything say anything or be
anything then you don’t have to worry
about being criticized and that’s kind
of the message for today but what he
really said was something much more
poetic what he said was if you would
escape moral and physical assassination
do nothing say nothing be nothing Court
obscurity for only in Oblivion does
safety lie kind of like that it’s kind
of hard to roll off the tongue in the
middle of a sort of a casual speech but
it’s really interesting and then that
was in 1898 and then in 1909 he came to
my hometown of Cleveland Ohio and he
delivered a lecture that was covered by
the Plain Dealer my beloved newspaper
The Plain Dealer which I delivered for I
don’t know six years as a paperboy in
Cleveland and journalist said this is
what he said directly if a man is alive
if he’s tapping the reservoirs he is
sure to meet defeat he’ll be knocked
he’ll be misunderstood laughed at and
perhaps called a foe to society
who doesn’t want to be knocked and
laughed at I give this recipe do nothing
say nothing be nothing go in your hole
and pull your hole after you and put up
a sign not at home if any man follows
this recipe I assure you he will never
get turned down
so now that we know who said this and
now that we know that it was an
Aristotle Thank You Elbert Hubbard
you gotta wonder if it’s even possible
for the kinds of jobs that we you and I
have selected to do because in today’s
society even if you’re not an actor or a
voice talent or a marketer or somebody
who’s teaching or any of the things that
I’ve chosen to do
no matter what you do you are open to
criticism you’re open to comments on
social media you’re open to pushback
you’re open to somebody saying well that
was a whole bunch of nothing you know
I actually was glad that that was a
comment that was made because it
Illustrated a couple of things
Illustrated that for him my stuff wasn’t
right it Illustrated that to him
and it also Illustrated once again the
sort of dismissive anonymous hey I can
post on the internet so I will post on
the Internet
what do you think of that huh what are
gonna do about that pal it you know we
have this this attitude today that we
never had before
right I was talking about it the other
day with the video that I talked about
with Kevin O’Leary
you know that social media has changed
everything about how we communicate in a
business setting you know in a support
versus not support setting so I’m hoping
that you have the strength to risk
negative comments if you do great I’d
love to hear about it in the comments
below and if you don’t I’d love to hear
about that in the comments below if you
really hate when people give you
criticism even if it’s constructive I’d
love to know that
so wherever you’re watching this video
let me know in the comments below and
know that to celebrate a hundred
episodes coming up here soon I’m gonna
be holding a virtual AMA what’s an AMA
David an AMA is an ask me anything
session but I’m gonna hold it virtually
all you need to do is know that if
you’ve asked a question in any of the
first 99 videos that’s really good
really juicy I’m gonna answer it
hopefully in the hundredth video I’m
gonna try to answer as many as I can I
don’t want it to spill over into a
second video unless it’s really well
received and then I want to do 90 of
them and then you can also heal me email
me your questions at david lawrence at
gmail.com and just put in the subject
line and a question so I know that it’s
for you ask me anything session and give
me about anything you want it can be
about voiceover it can be about acting
it can be about on-camera presence
marketing productivity radio TV film
even even how I make these videos the
process and the products that I use to
do that if that’s what you’d like to ask
so that’s coming up in the hundredth
episode and I really I really look
forward to that because I’ve gotten some
really good questions and I’m looking
forward to doing that listen if you
would like to join my youtube channel
please click on my head there if there’s
no head look for a subscribe button if
you want to see the latest video I’ve
done go ahead and click on that frame
YouTube will play it for you I’m David H
Lawrence 17 thanks so much for watching
and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

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