Hi Haters, We Embrace You

This essay was written for the Makers of Sport® newsletter in December 2015. Monday Musings and Weekend Reads were the written editions of the newsletter that accompanied the podcast; the archived email is on Mailchimp. The newsletter's links and announcements are trimmed here.

Illustration from [The Oatmeal](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things)

Oh, haters. We all know them, you may have even been one. Every once in a while, you may be in a snarky mood and read something on the Internet that just ticks you off. Maybe you comment on an article with opposing views, maybe you tweet at an athlete that said something you disagree with. Certainly, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Each of us have this streak in us. Fortunately (and unfortunately), the Internet gives everyone with a smart phone the platform to share their opinions. With the recent U.S. Presidential Election coming up, there is no shortage of them.

The world today tends to be so full of negativity and jealousy. The news channels and websites are constantly covering outrageous stories, headlines are written to cause anger amongst certain demographics in order to get more clicks (to sell ads), and the comments of just about any YouTube video are full of vitriolic and pointless banter. Renown tech entrepreneur James Altucher calls it "outrage porn".

Sometimes though, haters — or more specifically the fear of haters — can keep us from publishing our work for the world to see. In the creative industry, our work is a little piece of our soul — our personality. We put deep thought into our work and then it goes out into the world to be judged. Whether by clients, fans, specific market demographics or other audiences, judgement is oftentimes a necessary result of being a person that creates for a living.

We should, however; never let this judgement or fear of people hating on our work keep us from putting it into the world. Let's be honest, haters are hard to ignore and with the more our audience grows, the more the haters will appear.

It's tough, but we must know that the things we make aren't for everyone. There is a certain audience each of us is trying to (or should be trying to target) when we create our work. I have stated it in the episodes before that my podcast is not for everyone. I'm not making the show to promote others or just for the sake of putting something out to make money on sponsorships. I can't tell you how many times people ask me if they can come on the podcast because they have a following on twitter or did some social graphic for some sports brand or have a sports tech startup they want to promote. I only bring people on the show that I am interested in and genuinely feel I can learn from. My audience learning from them is just an added bonus.

Unfortunately, just because someone can make really cool things in Photoshop does not mean they are inherently that interesting to me. Most of us that have been working in this industry can do most things in Photoshop. I'm more interested in stories, life, philosophies, the struggles and the grind. People that want pats on the back for their work, retweets or silly social media popularity votes are free to find the numerous other places on the web that do those kinds of things. There is a community for everyone and everything on the Internet. Makers of Sport Podcast however, focuses on and will continue to focus on high-performing, interesting and talented people making things in the sports industry. I'm not in this for popularity, I'm in it to learn, to be inspired and hopefully share some of that inspiration with a few others that can also appreciate it all while facilitating a competent and education-hungry community.

Now in this world of haters, you can imagine how well the above sits with certain folks. You'd think that telling someone no means you told them they are worthless, they're not talented, or they're a waste of time. Of course everyone has a story, and someone somewhere might be interested in it, that's just not me. And that's fine, I'm not their audience.

The people that hate on you are most likely also people that will passionately consume your work. They'll read it, listen to it, watch it, use it for inspiration or flat out rip you off; but they'll never give you credit for it, favorite it, share it, or compliment it. Jealousy oftentimes drives hate in the Internet context. Maybe some designer you admire is getting asked to speak at tons of conferences, getting social media famous and winning a lot of awards based on their name, yet you find something wrong with them and their (oftentimes unasked for) fame. You think you are better than them, so you decide to be a hater of them. Maybe this even happens to you.

We need to be mindful of this mentality in ourselves. A designer I admire and have mentioned a few times on the podcast, Tobias Van Schneider — former art director of Spotify and epically bearded designer — is known for putting out a lot of work in regards to side projects. He recently wrote in that "being a hater is easy, doing something constructive is not". I had never thought about this mentality but it really spoke to me and makes a lot of sense.

The nature of making in the sports world is that there will be hate and vitriol. New team branding gets hated on, uniforms get hated on, team graphics get hated on, athletes get hated on. People have a hard time being objective when it comes to sports. But we should try our best to ignore said haters and use them as motivation to continue making.

Renown author, entrepreneur and marketer Seth Godin never reads the lower Amazon reviews on his books. When asked why he never reads 1-star reviews, he stated that he didn't make the book for those people. They are not his audience. A wise statement and one we as makers should also consider.

The next time you are faced with a hater, try and ignore them. It's hard, trust me I know. But use your energy to create something instead; put it into the world and tell yourself over and over that the people that don't like your creations are not your audience.

Have a blessed, safe and happy Holiday Season!

Cheers,

Adam