I have always been particularly sensitive to criticism, and with the firm’s advertising profile, we tend to have people who look out for us in order to have a go at us.  I saw that recently with a driver of ours who, despite previous written warnings and extensive lectures on being aware, not only of following the rules of the road, but they are in fact an extension of the brand, driving branded cars, decided to break the laws.  

A photograph of him driving in a yellow lane was re-tweeted more than 100 times and it was particularly embarrassing for me.  We took decisive action and suspended him, pending a disciplinary enquiry, and given that this was not his first offence, it led to his dismissal.  The tweets on Twitter and on Facebook were all about whether or not our firm would actually do something about it.  The second we did, we came in for a new round of criticism from people who suggested that a warning letter would be enough, explaining to somebody to follow the rules of the road would be the way to go, etc.  It reminded me that you simply cannot win on the Internet and you can rest assured that if I had announced that he was going to get a warning letter, there would have been an even bigger reaction from people saying we don’t take such issues seriously, and that just a letter for such illegal behaviour is unacceptable.

Whatever steps you take, you are going to be exposed to criticism and you really cannot ever win.  It reminds me of the Aristotle quote, because there is a way to avoid all criticism, and that is that Aristotle said, “To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.”  It is a good reminder that if you want to be successful, then you are never going to avoid criticism in one way or another at some time or other and the only way to truly avoid criticism is to do nothing, say nothing and be nothing.  If you are outspoken, opinionated and out there, you are always unfortunately going to attract criticism – generally from those who say nothing and do nothing.