If You Don't Have Haters, You're Not Trying

We are wired to seek approval. But in a high-growth career, 100% approval is an indicator of stagnation.

I posted a video a year and a half ago about why I was quitting Amazon.

99% of the comments were incredible. People were supportive. They said it was inspiring. They said they couldn’t wait to see what I built next.

But I didn’t sleep that night.

I wasn’t thinking about the thousands of people cheering me on. I was fixated on the 1%. The people in the comments saying things like:

“He probably got PIP’d.” “He was never that good anyway.” “WHO CARES?”

I thought I had thick skin but those comments pierced right through the armor. It took me a long time to process why. Why does one negative voice drown out a thousand positive ones? Why does our brain fixate on the one person who disapproves? The answer is in our biology. And if you don’t learn to override it, it will put a hard ceiling on your career. We are running caveman software in a modern world.

Our ancient ancestors lived in a world where threats were fatal. If you looked at the tall grass and saw a hundred patches of nice flowers, that …