Why People Love and Hate You

Brett Tilford — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:01:57 +0000

Whenever we say something like, “I really like Bob. He’s friendly and intelligent. The world would be a better place if there were more people like him.” What we’re actually saying is, “Bob really likes me. He thinks I’m friendly and intelligent. He thinks the world of me.”

On the flip side whenever we say to ourselves, “I’m not a fan of Bob. He seems like a real jerk.” That’s normally because we sense that Bob thinks we’re a jerk.

As sad as it is, we tend to take our cue of how we feel about others, from how we perceive they feel about us. It’s like we walk around with some sort of radar that’s constantly pinging the question, do you like me? Until we get that question answered by an individual, we keep the jury out on them.

Be a person who makes the first move. Choose to see the good in other people and love them for it. Not only is it the right and decent thing to do, I think you’ll find a growing number of people who have nothing but good things to say about you. Why? They trust you would do the same for them.

Photo Credit: JasonUnbound

Create Products People Hate

Brett Tilford — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:51:03 +0000

In the modern world we have more choices than ever. From choosing a restaurant to deciding which web design firm will handle our project, we’re no longer bound by a lack of information or our location on the planet. In the early 1900’s average businesses could survive simply because the consumer lacked options. You shopped at the local bookstore or utilized the local print shop because it was the only one in town and you were familiar with it. In the mid to late 1900’s you could dominate a market with an average product and a huge marketing budget. Mass marketing still worked because there weren’t 1,000,000 voices all vying for our attention. However the internet has changed everything because it’s made information cheap and rendered location far less important. Your local bookstore isn’t competing with the shop around the corner, they’re competing with Amazon. It no longer takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to start a business, the playing field has been leveled and everyone and their grandma is jumping in. Here’s what this means for you.

Your only shot is to build something that people hate, because for every person that hates you there will be someone that loves you. Don’t build a product that appeals to the largest number of people possible, build a product that gets a small number of people excited and talking. If you can win a few die hard fans your idea will spread. Remember the worst thing someone can say about your product isn’t “I hate this!” or “this is the worst idea ever!” The worst thing they can say is nothing at all. Be deeply loved and deeply hated.

Photo Credit: Dr. Seuss

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Why People Love and Hate You

Create Products People Hate