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Tim Ferriss Scam! Practical Tactics for Dealing with Haters

Guest post by: Timothy Ferriss

Article Overview: I recently spent a week in Amsterdam enjoying bicycles, canals, Queensday, and… ahem… coffee shops. For real. Honest. The best coffee I’ve had in Europe has to be De Koffie Salon.

Tim Ferriss Scam! Practical Tactics for Dealing with Haters

I recently spent a week in Amsterdam enjoying bicycles, canals, Queensday, and... ahem... coffee shops. For real. Honest. The best coffee I've had in Europe has to be De Koffie Salon. I also gave a short keynote at The NextWeb about how to deal with haters, protect yourself from (some) media, respond to FlipCams, and other personal branding self-defense 101.

Think you have crazy people contacting you or commenting on your blog? Me too. I share some of my favorite hater e-mails, Amazon reviews, and voicemails. It'll make you feel better to hear the stories.

It is possible to learn to love haters. But it does take some know-how and tactical planning...

I elaborated on a few points in an interview in the Netherlands with Amy-Mae Elliot, who originally posted them on Mashable in her piece Tim Ferriss: 7 Great Principles for Dealing with Haters:

1. It doesn't matter how many people don't get it. What matters is how many people do.

"It's critical in social media, as in life, to have a clear objective and not to lose sight of that," Ferriss says. He argues that if your objective is to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people or to change the world in some small way (be it through a product or service), you only need to pick your first 1,000 fans - and carefully. "As long as you're accomplishing your objectives, that 1,000 will lead to a cascading effect," Ferriss explains. "The 10 million that don't get it don't matter."

2. 10% of people will find a way to take anything personally. Expect it.

"People are least productive in reactive mode," Ferriss states, before explaining that if you are expecting resistance and attackers, you can choose your response in advance, as opposed to reacting inappropriately. This, Ferriss says, will only multiply the problem. "Online I see people committing 'social media suicide' all the time by one of two ways. Firstly by responding to all criticism, meaning you're never going to find time to complete important milestones of your own, and by responding to things that don't warrant a response." This, says Ferriss, lends more credibility by driving traffic.

3. "Trying to get everyone to like you is a sign of mediocrity." (Colin Powell)

"If you treat everyone the same and respond to everyone by apologizing or agreeing, you're not going to be recognizing the best performers, and you're not going to be improving the worst performers," Ferriss says. "That guarantees you'll get more behavior you don't want and less you do." That doesn't mean never respond, Ferriss goes on to say, but be "tactical and strategic" when you do.

4. "If you are really effective at what you do, 95% of the things said about you will be negative." (Scott Boras)

"This principle goes hand-in-hand with number two," Ferriss says. "I actually keep this quote in my wallet because it is a reminder that the best people in almost any field are almost always the people who get the most criticism." The bigger your impact, explains Ferriss (whose book is a New York Times, WSJ and BusinessWeek bestseller), and the larger the ambition and scale of your project, the more negativity you'll encounter. Ferriss jokes he has haters "in about 35 languages."

5. "If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid." (Epictetus)

"Another way to phrase this is through a more recent quote from Elbert Hubbard," Ferriss says. "‘To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing." Ferriss, who holds a Guinness World Record for the most consecutive tango spins, says he has learned to enjoy criticism over the years. Ferriss, using Roman philosophy to expand on his point, says: "Cato, who Seneca believed to be the perfect stoic, practiced this by wearing darker robes than was customary and by wearing no tunic. He expected to be ridiculed and he was, he did this to train himself to only be ashamed of those things that are truly worth being ashamed of. To do anything remotely interesting you need to train yourself to be effective at dealing with, responding to, even enjoying criticism... In fact, I would take the quote a step further and encourage people to actively pursue being thought foolish and stupid."

6. "Living well is the best revenge." (George Herbert)

"The best way to counter-attack a hater is to make it blatantly obvious that their attack has had no impact on you," Ferriss advises. "That, and [show] how much fun you're having!" Ferriss goes on to say that the best revenge is letting haters continue to live with their own resentment and anger, which most of the time has nothing to do with you in particular. "If a vessel contains acid and you pour some on an object, it's still the vessel that sustains the most damage," Ferriss says. "Don't get angry, don't get even - focus on living well and that will eat at them more than anything you can do."

7. Keep calm and carry on.

The slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On" was originally produced by the British government during the Second World War as a propaganda message to comfort people in the face of Nazi invasion. Ferriss takes the message and applies it to today's world. "Focus on impact, not approval. If you believe you can change the world, which I hope you do, do what you believe is right and expect resistance and expect attackers," Ferriss concludes. "Keep calm and carry on!"

Afterword

One of my favorite authors, Nassim N. Taleb of Black Swan fame, e-mailed me the following aphorism today, which was perfect timing and perfectly put:

Robustness is when you care more about the few who like your work than the multitude who hates it (artists); fragility is when you care more about the few who hate your work than the multitude who loves it (politicians).

Choose to be robust.

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Article Tags: 10 million, amazon reviews, attackers, bicycles, canals, clear objective, coffee shops, crazy people, haters, keynote, mae, mashable, nextweb, practical tactics, queensday, resistance, self defense, tactical planning, tim ferriss, two ways



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Re: Quote of the Day - "We are each responsible for our own life - In one of my articles related to "Is It a Scam or is it YOU" most cry Scam when in fact they have done nothing the with the program, havent followed the bluprint or the training, improperly marketed it. etc. "One mans scam may be another mans bonanza" is a quote used. Summing up the article, Do your Own Due Diligence, Make your own decision, and finally "Take Responsibility for your Decision regardless of the outcome Good or Bad"
Re: Profiles on Infamous Entrepreneurs? - Hi Kevin, I guess the point about running a "Scam" thread would be to attract those different opinions so they can be aired on an open forum and responded to fairly. Both sides of the argument could then be seen in one place (here!).
Re: What I Enjoyed Reading This Week - June 4 - Hi Evan, I just joined this forum and looking forward to positive interactions. I'd say great collection of weekly reads. My top two picks from your list are 4 Facebook Marketing Tactics and 8 Brands That Have Found Success on FB - very interesting and informative resources especially for entrepreneurs who want to get the most out of online marketing. Thanks, Melanie James
Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
Young Entrepreneur in International trading - I just turned 21 last week, and I currently own a international trading company doing trades between China, Taiwan, Thailand, and west coast of US and starting out in Canada soon. Dealing with gift items and general merchandise. We are also trying to sell some of the stuff we import as retail and wholesale products on the internet and to retail venders as we do have a lot of extra pallets that gets left over from our buyers.


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