Recently, I have been promoting an excellent new product.  Anyway, in promoting this new product I have run into many that are just putting it and me down for promoting it.

It brought me way back to when I was a kid and captain and leader of my Pop Warner football teams at the Northridge Knights where we won many championships.  It was 8 championships in 9 years.  Since I was a kid, I never knew it was NOT possible to win.  So I just thought that if we worked hard, played with passion, and kicked ass, we would win.  I believed it and worked for it.

If people were thinking or talking like we could not do it, I never heard from them or maybe I just didn’t hear them.  No matter, the point is that I was an innocent kid not jaded by the misery of failure that so many older jaded unhappy people love to project on others to curb their enthusiasm and possibilities.

I had no clue these negative people existed.  Really!  A good naivete, ya think?

Okay, so fast forward to College and I clearly and vividly remember the first time I noticed that people were trying to rain on my success parade.

It was the fall of 1982, my 2nd year at University.  I was broke and working for $ 2.42 per hour at the laundry mat at school.  Thinking this is no way to get through school, I started a car waxing business and called it College Car Waxing.

I waxed my first client’s car, my Uncle Joe’s car, for $ 15.  Then, his secretary’s car for $ 25, then the guys next door for $ 50.  I was amazed by the huge amounts of money I was making.

So I made some cheap black and white business cards to pass out to prospects to drum up business.  I was so happy. Heck, my mom thought I was a titan of American business and treated me like royalty when I came home with that massive wad of cashola!

Naturally, being a happy guy, I shared this success with my friends at school.  Oops!  They immediately made fun of the idea, the business, and me. Calling my business stupid names like “College Dick Waxing” and making me feel awful.  That hurt because I valued their opinion and garnered their respect.

I went home that day thinking what is the problem?  For a day or so I was perplexed.  But after the following weekend,  after I made $ 300 on a very busy working weekend, I remember that I had the whole following week free to study.

Yep, I was flush with cash and had a ton of time to devote to my studies.  It was a great idea and it was working fantastically.  So I went back to the cafeteria and there they were, still laughing at me and making fun of my business.

This was the first time that I was completely aware that some people are just miserable and are not happy for others’ success at best and frankly, envious when others achieve.  Seems some will always try to put one’s honest genuine hard work to ridicule no matter what.  Pleasant huh?

Fast forward to my adult business career, I was fortunate to take my enthusiasm, passion, education, and ambition to earn MILLIONS of dollars in my twenties and early thirties.  I was in the top 10% of earners in the US during this very productive time.   And guess what?  Yep, those friends were still making fun of me and my business.  Amazing huh?   Guess, I needed to make billions.  LOL!

Seems no matter what there are always going to be people out there who find the grey clouds on a sunny day.

My advice?

Just ignore them and keep going because life is full of fun, excitement, and passion.  You really can do anything you set your mind to…really!  That’s the secret. 

If you think you can and are willing to pay the price to achieve you can do it and if your friends laugh at you, remember my story.  Let them laugh!   Such is the Fine Art of Negativity!