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Attack of the Negabots!

You know the story. Pumped up about your latest (and greatest) idea, you come barreling up to a friend, relative, whomever and pour out your thoughts a mile a minute. You smile and stand with great pride while your voice vibrates. You can barely contain your excitement.

It is the greatest idea in the history of....the world! Of course you aren't listening, you are talking and you finish unleashing your fury of words. And then you are waiting for a huge hug, pat on the back, or "go get 'em" speech. Because positive reinforcement rocks, right?

But instead you get a look of confusion or even distain and the person you were hoping to embrace your idea blurts out:

"That isn't going to work!"
"What are you crazy?"
"That is a dumb idea."
"You don't have enough experience to do that."
"I know someone who did something like that, she know lives in a box down by the river penniless."
"Why don't you go get a JOB, instead?"

You, my dear friend, have encountered a negabot. The person who takes the wind out of your sails, shoots you down when you are high, and mind-numbingly makes that dreadful self doubt take over your mind. Suddenly the idea you had one minute ago seems to have many flaws. Maybe the negabot is right. It was a stupid idea, wasn't it? You think Maybe I should quit.

Time to change your thinking (negabots are contagious by the way). If you are going to succeed at whatever you are doing, you have to learn how to identify, deal with, and ignore negabots. Every great idea has received more than enough resistance and trust me negabots are everywhere.

Negabots are not necessarily bad people or deserve to be banished to the depths of lord-knows-where. It is hard to stereotype a negabot and often even more difficult to ignore one. If you receive 100 emails in one day, 99 are positive and 1 is a negabot, which one will you remember? The stupid negabot!

Here are 5 tips for dealing with negabots and keeping all of your positive energy:

1. Don't argue. Negabots won't be persuaded, so it really isn't worth it. Just nod and smile.
2. Don't take it personally. Negabots are negative about everything so don't sweat it. If it is 84 degrees and sunny, they are complaining that it isn't 85.
3. Surround your self with positive, warm people and those that reinforce you and believe in you. You become more like those that you are around. Get away from the Negabots!
4. Call a positive person right away. If you encounter a negabot, call a positive person in your network explain that you have just encountered a negabot. A little positive therapy can go a long way.
5. Maybe this is just me, but sometimes getting a little ex-girlfriend revenge can be fun (insert diabolical laugh here). Use negative comments to fuel your fire and then send them your product, book, whatever when it is finished. Gloat.

The bottom line is to eliminate the negative people from your life as much as you can. If it is someone that you can't distance from (negative parent, grandparent), just take it in stride and let it fuel your energy.

Trust me I've faced negabots my entire life:
In college I heard, "Why in the world are you majoring in Women's Studies? You won't be able to get a JOB with that!" (I didn't get a job, I started a company) After college I heard, "Get a nice stable job. How about real estate or go to law school?" or "You won't be able to get one sponsor for your hockey league!" (That was my first company out of college which ended up with over 10 sponsors including Fortune 500 companies). Recently, "What do you mean you are going to start a broadcast television show at age 24? You can't do that!" (ha) "You won't have any viewers!" (125,000+ and counting including outdrawing "The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch", double ha).

At the end of the day you are you and the negabot is a negabot. Only let your fire be fueled, not put out!

David Siteman Garland is the CEO and Host of The Rise To The Top: Your source for entrepreneurship education and living your dream lifestyle on ABC and WRBU broadcast television. Deemed "The Creative Opportunities Specialist" and expert in marketing, sponsorships and connecting with Generation Y, David is an entrepreneur, writer, professional speaker, entertainer, and mentor. For more information about David and his programs visit http://www.therisetothetop.com

David's creative marketing background has led to succeeding in developing unique and creative sponsorships for major corporations such as CFM/Shell, On the Run Mobil, Pepsi, & 180 Energy Drink (Anheuser-Busch) and he is a Telly Award recipient among 14,000 entries at the 29th Annual Telly Awards.

posted by dancehuonk @ 9:58 AM