Revenge is Best Served Well

I was part of a discussion the other day, and the topic came to proving critics wrong. Out here in L.A., there’s approximately 10 million people who are trying to prove someone wrong. Many people that live here, upon my observation, either came to L.A. to seek fame and fortune in some capacity or believed that opportunities would be more bountiful here. They want to stay until the reached some merit of success to prove to others they could do it, and/or to prove it to themselves.

However, putting L.A. aside, we’re in America, where there’s about 300,000,000 people trying to prove someone wrong. All the citizens here, nationals and foreign-born, have deemed this land of opportunity (and for good reason), work their fingers to the bone (most people anyway) to prove to others that they can succeed, and you know the rest…

Point is, none of us are alone. And as such, the forces that gets one person moving are the same forces that gets everyone else moving.

When you set out to achieve something, there’s two types of energy you can feed on to keep you going:

positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement

There’s varying opinions on which is more effective, but here’s something I’ve learned. When someone tells you something negative, such as the classic line “You can’t do it,”, just live well.

When someone pays you a compliment, smile, say thank you, and just live well.

Living well wards off any negative influence that may try to pervade you, as well as helping you graciously accept any praises you may receive. I think it’s important to be humble when we’re adulated. After all, the only reason that someone is ahead of someone else in life is because they worked to get there.

No one is anyone. Some have just lived their life more well then others.

Unfortunately, in some cultures, people are unjustly stationed in a lower caste and tier. But that is changing, and will be gone forever one day, I believe.

Don’t become bitter at negative energy; don’t get too heady from flattery; just live well.

Oh, yeah, and smiling helps, too.