Trump’s Mistake
Dear Trump: Make Your Critics Work For You.
President Donald Trump has no shortage of critics. People who make fun of his hair, who deplore his brash, take-charge attitude, who call him every manner of name and criticize his every move. It seems he can do nothing right in their eyes.
It doesn’t help that President Trump has a habit of coming back swinging verbally. He lets them provoke him into responding by adding negativity to their negativity. He hates on his haters which just fuels the big hate bonfire blazing through the country. And all he accomplishes by doing so is to make his detractors look like they are right when they say he isn’t leadership material and that he can’t handle the position.
He allows them to downplay anything positive he might do by pointing out every negative thing that happened on his way to getting it done. In short, he’s dancing to their fiddle, reacting with emotion rather than with clarity and composure. He’s doing their job for them with his behavior, letting them lead him into reacting rather than leading them by responding.
The Truth: You Cannot Escape Critics
You can be God almighty Himself, filled with love for humanity and absolutely intent on helping them, and you will still have critics. You can have a vision that will unerringly lead humanity into its greatest golden age and you will still have critics. You will still have people who do not want you to succeed, people who fear you can’t do what you’re saying you’re going to do, and people who misunderstand what you’re attempting to do or fear that you will do it. This is unavoidable and part and parcel of being a leader. The greater the leader, the more critics you will face and the harsher they will be.
This is because you need those critics. You need them hounding you, challenging you, questioning your actions and your thinking. They exist to help you grow into the person you must become in order to be the bullet-proof leader that your followers need.
The Solution: Let Them Crucify Your Ego
You have a vision for making America great again. You want to see her rise up and reclaim her position as thought leader of the world. You want her to remember who she is and, just as importantly, to see who she can become if she rallies her people together to move in that direction. It’s a beautiful vision, but your ego is in its way.
Your ego gets hurt by their doubts, by their detraction, by their mockery and it shows. You roar back at them in your pain and just give them more ammunition for their slingshots. Let them crucify your ego. Let them put your ego to death. Let them beat on it, berate it, abuse it, and misuse it. Let them say what they want, think what they want, and do what they want as long as you remain true to your vision.c
Every Vision Requires A Sacrifice
The vision must be your highest priority. Every vision worth achieving requires a sacrifice. The hero sacrifices himself to achieve that vision. The villain sacrifices others. It takes courage to offer up your ego and let that be the thing that gets sacrificed at the altar of the vision you serve, but it is that courage that will prove the worth of the vision to those who are observing you now.
It’s not easy to let our ego die and our dreams of being appreciated and valued for the work we’ve done with it. It’s not easy to remain calm when words and other objects, even, are being hurled at your head. However, it is that calm surrender of the ego, that recognition that what you do is for something much greater than how you feel or what you desire, that will be observed and noticed by others. It is the example set by someone who knows where he is going and knows that the value of getting there is worth more than anything else.
Convert Those Critics Into Your Unwitting Allies and Advocates
They may not intend to help you, but those critics can become your biggest allies and your greatest advocates. You just have to handle them correctly. You may not ever be able to get them to recognize you as a friend, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be helpful to you and to your agenda. They will tell you what nobody else you trust will – and that makes them your best friends and your greatest allies.