No Complaining
Lately, I have tried to get in the habit of not bitching and moaning about things.
- It doesn’t change anything
- It actually makes you feel worse in the long run
- It is counterproductive (more on this in a moment)
- Your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, etc.
- You’re miserable to be around
It wasn’t until I started working for myself that I had a can-do, positive attitude. Of course, the beginnings were inauspicious. I started the newsletter in the depths of the financial crisis, and things were so bad that I’d start my day by puking in the trash can. And I don’t want to imply that I never had doubts that I would be successful, because I absolutely did. But there was nobody to blame anything on. Not sales traders, not customers, not commanding officers, just me and my brain against the world. If I succeeded, I took the credit, and if I failed, I took the blame. Entrepreneurs generally fall into the category of people who have a pretty good attitude about things. You have to, or you’re fucked. If you think that you will fail, you probably will fail. If you complain about the external forces that are buffeting your business, instead of doing something about it, you won’t last a minute. There aren’t too many pessimist, hangdog entrepreneurs, mostly because if you’re a negative nellie, you’re not going to start a business in the first place. Self-selection in action.
I mentioned that complaining is counterproductive. What is the one thing that people have complained about ceaselessly for the last ten years? Trump! And guess what—he is president twice. All that complaining actually got him elected. Every tweet, every Facebook post, every TV anchor, every op-ed complaining about Trump, all got him elected. We are seeing the same thing play out with that turd Mamdani. The more people complain about him, the more popular he gets. I’ve had to hit delete on a bunch of Mamdani tweets, why? Because I was complaining about him, and only making him stronger. If you complain about something, you make it stronger! Don’t believe me? Stand outside with a pink pussy hat and see how far that gets you. President twice. Pretty much any time you are marching in the street with a sign like a cunt, you are doing the exact opposite of what you intend to do. Well, what about the civil rights protests of the 1960s, weren’t those effective? Yes they were, but notably, they were not complaining. They were not resentful, angry protests. In addition to being nonviolent, they came from a place of love. Protests these days (like the recent ones in Los Angeles) do not evoke sympathy—they do not claim the moral high ground, and are always, always counterproductive. I challenge you to come up with an angry protest that changed hearts and minds. Name one.
So if you complain about something, you make it stronger, that means you should really never complain, ever. And I’m not just talking about politics. If you have a jerk boss, and you complain about your boss, you are actually giving power to your boss. If your wife is mean, and you complain about your wife, you are actually giving power to your wife. Do something about it, or shut up—those are your options. But people always choose door number three, which is to complain about something relentlessly, which provides some temporary relief,, but makes everything worse in the long run. And complaining about the weather is about the dumbest thing you could possibly do—you have no control over it! In fact, you have no control over most things you complain about. I get it—it’s hot—can we change the subject? Complaining about traffic? Jesus Christ. Complaining about the line at Starbucks? Get a grip. Just head down the road to Dunkin Donuts. And finally, complaining about the stock market? Get your head examined.
