Fight or Flight: What kind of business are you running?
You’ve heard the saying “fight or flight – everybody chooses one” and as much as it applies to physical confrontations, it also applies to your business. With your business, you’re going to choose one or the other to live by and the option you choose could make or break your business.
The Fighting Freelancer
A freelancer who’s willing to fight will push through all of the bullshit and obstacles that are thrown their way, no matter how big or small. They won’t stop and argue, they won’t physically fight, but they’ll keep pushing forward and not let their business slow down because someone is holding onto their pant legs, trying to drag them down.
The upside to this type of a freelancer is that they’re going to continue to move forward, no matter what happens. At the end of the day the freelancer who fights is going to be further ahead on the road to success than the person who doesn’t fight.
The downside to being this kind of a freelancer is that the people who are trying to pull you down and get a rise out of you are going to feel justified in what they’re doing because you’re not giving them a response and defending yourself – other people watching also might think that you’re not defending yourself because you’re wrong.
The freelancer in flight
On the other side of the coin is the freelancer who’s constantly in flight. They’re running from problems, hiding from ridicule or take the first road block on their career path and throw in the towel. These types of freelancers will answer every negative comment about them and try to make people see “their side of the argument”. They’ll write comments on blog posts that are downgrading their business, send emails to angry customers and constantly be in the mode of talking about themselves and how good their business is doing.
The benefit of this type of freelancing is that the world will see that the freelancer cares about their reputation and is trying to do something about the negativity going on. The people who are posting the negative comments online will feel as though they’ve got what they wanted (either an apology or a public note by you stating that they’re right in their anger) and the world will all be set right, right?
The downside to being this kind of a freelancer is that it’s distracting from your every day business. If you’re spending 1-2 hours a day online arguing about why you’re a great freelancer and the few people who don’t like you are wrong, what are the clients who are actually paying you for your work getting? Are you giving them 100% of you – which is what you should be doing because they’re the ones paying you, not the ones who are trying to throw dirt on your name.
In the end…
Haters are going to hate – it’s true in any form of business or life in general. What you give (or don’t give) them is up to you, but I’d suggest to keep pushing forward because at the end of the day, that’s what’s going to keep your business afloat, not the responses you are giving to haters.
