In a recent conversation with my friend Guy Windsor, he shared a useful thought with me. When you put your work out into the world there are three basic kinds of response you may get:

1. Positive and supportive.
“What a great article/book/art piece you’ve shared. This is what I have been looking for.”

2. Critical and supportive.
“What you are expressing here has merit but here is how you could make that merit shine more.”

3. Critical and unsupportive.
“This is the worst book I have ever read and this is why I disagree with the author.”

It’s the third group that can be easy to get hung up on. You can easily spend your time trying to respond or change your product to try to meet their expectations and satisfy their criticism. Yet what you need to truly acknowledge is that they’re: not your audience. No product can be liked by everyone, and the truth is you don’t write for *everyone*. You write for the people that are already on board with you and the people that are not on board but who are genuinely seeking the understanding and learning you may offer them or have genuinely useful feedback to offer. Let the others have their own books and art pieces. If they choose to waste their energy deriding work that doesn’t suit them, certainly don’t follow suit and do the same.