I love my readers, but sometimes, no matter what I say, I’ll get criticized. I’ll post my opinion about something and I’ll get emails from people telling me what an arrogant piece of shit I am. I don’t want to be like Disney (below) and write conservative posts that prevent myself from being interesting, but there are some posts that I’ve gotten so much crap for. Same with business. If I decide to concentrate focus on one thing versus another, I’ll get shit for not taking on a great opportunity. Co-founders supposedly help with this problem.

A few months ago, I wrote a long post on how Elance.com failed and oDesk.com succeeded. oDesk loved it, Elance obviously hated it, and some readers thought I was being racist by mentioning “cheap indians.” I’m in very friendly terms with the readers who pointed me out on that, but it’s difficult to entertain and satisfy all.

I feel like this is what happens to the President on a daily basis. No, I don’t like George Bush. But I do have sympathy (sorta) for him. For example, if he decides to ban gay marriage, people on both coasts will be pissed at him. Now lets say that he decides to be awesome and allow gay marriage. His fellow republicans and conservative middle america hillbillies won’t be pleased. (and yes, I’ll probably get nasty emails or comments for writing that last sentence)

george bush

My favorite favorite example of how leaders are always criticized is in 9/11 conspiracy theories. *sensitive topic ahead* – Nobody wanted planes to crash into the twin towers. Remember flight 93, the flight that crashed in the middle of nowhere? Supposedly, the people on the plane were heroes. In the conspiracy theories, the US Air Force shot down the plane in some way. Now here’s where it gets interesting: Americans were bashing George Bush and the government for having shot down the plane with the idea that it was headed towards another important building of some sort. Yet other Americans were bashing George Bush and the government for not shooting down the planes that went into the World Trade Center. This comes to show that no matter what Gerogie poo does, he’s screwed. Thank god I’m not the president!

Now for the counter argument. The common opinion is, if a leader sucks, he and his (company, government, group) will be criticized for the bad move. Google is a great company thats done so many incredible things. They don’t get a lot of press. But recently, they’ve gotten a lot of bad press for not refunding moneys paid for Google Videos and for changing Grand Central phone numbers. Whether or not this is true, I haven’t a clue. But the point is, everybody is out to get a leader or a big company on one bad step.

The next time we criticize someone, we should look at their reasoning and viewpoint to understand why they decided to do something in a certain way.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She’s currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, SimonsRockers.com, and Jessicamah.com.

  • No Related Post