To the naysayers and those who encounter them ( Archived) (2)

I believe that most of us have all been in the position of being second guessed by people we know. If it is persistent, it can weaken your resolve and confidence , if you allow it to. Thus, over a month ago, I sent the following encouraging e-mail to support a young friend on another site in an attempt to raise her confidence a bit. I decided to present it here to you also, just in case you know others, who may benefit from it too.

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"Don't let naysayers get to you, my friend. Some of the best advice I can ever give you, is to surround yourself with positive people, instead of negative ones. You will feel much better, live longer and accomplish far more in life. It's best not to argue with the negative types. Just take their statements as a sort of negative control - things to perhaps consider and safeguard yourself against, but not weigh you down. Yes, things COULD go wrong and you are aware of that. However, it doesn't mean you should ever give up, just because of the possibility of failure. It's also possible that you CAN succeed. And it clearly is those people who try, that DO succeed in life. Believe me, those that do not try, rarely ever succeed at anything, except missing out. Indeed, I challenge you to think of one who succeeded. It isn't easy to do so. Just about every real life success story you can probably think of, was due to someone persistently trying and not giving up.

Even if you strike out 9 out of 10 times, when you finally hit that home run, that's what makes it all worthwhile. I assure you that Babe Ruth, Barry Bonds & Roger Maris all made outs MANY more times, than they hit home runs, but no one remembers, or even cares about that, when you point it out.

As another example Colonel Sanders tried to sell his recipe for KFC chicken over 1,000 times and got turned down every time, except for the last time.

Abraham Lincoln, arguably one of our best presidents ever, lost a ton of elections, overcame mental illness and had several failed businesses, before he eventually became a great president.

In order to be successful, you must take some calculated risks and have the courage to overcome naysayers. Thus, I applaud your decision to move forward, rather than do nothing, as it takes courage and not everyone has courage. It also takes brains and not everyone has an ample supply of those either. You might remind them, that THEY are on the internet too. Thus, are they players and liars too ?

That might shut them up, at least for a little bit. :)"

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As an update, I am happy to report my friend couldn't be happier. Although she WAS truly stressed by naysayers (supposed friends) she is now deeply in love with the person that others were putting down, even though they didn't know him. Indeed, the happy couple just moved in together last week.