Running a business is hard enough without negative people in your life giving you a hard time. Learning how to deal with negative people around you can be a challenge but for those who truly believe in their business, you can prove them all wrong.
Some time had passed when I started doing my own thing. I had decided to jump head first into starting my own company. It’s not that easy when you have a cushy job. Right off the bat I noticed that people told me that I was making a mistake. So, I consulted with others who had been there before and were quite good at running a company. I was excited to see that I was on the right track.
That was a challenge but not really what I mean when I discuss what I call Life’s Losers. These are people that do anything they can to stick and obstacle in your way. I had such a challenge one year when a woman who worked at the same company as I did not care too much for my personality. It’s alright, I didn’t care much for hers either. In my world, I was just fine never to see her again. I recognized that she was a waste of human resources and my time. That was not good enough for her. She went out of her way to create problems for me. As a young person in business, it’s hard sometimes to make your way. If someone sees you are moving too fast they realize they don’t have the octane to keep up so what do they do? They slow you down because they have nothing better to do with their life. Thus, the reason why they earn the title: “Life’s Loser”.
The best way to handle these people is just to confront them. Often times they are spineless and weak. I say fight ten times harder as soon as you can and eventually they will learn that its useless to keep stumbling you. Of course you can try to ignore them but the likelihood that they will just ignore you too is probably around the 1% range. Meaning, 99% of the time they will follow you until you are as miserable with life as they are.
As you go through your venture, you will have countless problems. Business life is just a trade off for more problems. An owner’s job is simply to solve those problems in a quick calm manner. Then you get the next one. All you will be doing is finding more problems after you fix one.
The last thing you need is one of these life’s losers coming at you with added problems and slowdowns. If you get one, confront them. Tell them that you will not tolerate their behavior. If you are 10 times stronger than they are then you might make the situation worse but in the long run you will have snuffed out the conflict and most likely they will have greater respect for you for standing your ground. Perhaps they will just avoid you since they know you will fight back. These losers are no different than the bullies in school you no doubt encountered. Eventually they fade into the background.