A question I have been getting since the very beginning of me doing this job has been this: Trent, how do you deal with haters? Trent, how do you deal with the people who won’t stop doubting you in your life?... I hear this question all of the time, and the best response I have heard so far is this, and this is not my saying, but it is very helpful. The only way to avoid criticism, the only way to avoid hate, the only way to avoid people laughing at you is to say nothing, be nothing, or do nothing. Greatness is always misunderstood. I can promise you that.

Now, do not let me put words or ambitions into your mouth, if you don’t want to do anything in your life and you would rather live the quiet life then that is on you, but if you are thinking to yourself all of the time about how you want to be somebody in this world and how you want to do great things in your life then I can promise you that you will find haters that will doubt you along the way. There will probably be people on every step of your journey that do not believe in you or your ability to be great. Anybody who has ever accomplished anything worth doing will tell you the same thing. Being great and pursuing greatness requires putting yourself out there and when you do that there will be people that doubt you and there will be people that laugh at you.

The trick to not letting the haters get you down is to know why they are so vocal about their disbelief in you. Think about this for a second: if somebody did not believe in you and that was all there is to the story, they would not say anything about it. Think about it. Why would they tell you that they don’t believe in you? Why would they try to drag you down if they just didn’t believe in you? They wouldn’t. The reason they are so vocal about their disbelief in you is because there is more to the story. The truth of the matter is that they do not believe in themselves… Or, at least they do not want to believe in themselves. You see, to believe in yourself means to know that you could be better. So you either have to work hard to be better, or sit and know that the reason you are lesser and unhappy is because you just won’t work hard. However, if you believe that you just can’t be better then you get to be the victim. If you can’t be better then it is not your fault. This is what the haters have started to believe about themselves, but when you come along and push towards greatness then you are disproving their lie. So the only way for them to feel okay is to rise to the challenge, or pull you back down to their level and keep their lie, and it is a whole lot easier to pull you down.

So, stop letting the haters believe that growth and greatness is impossible. Prove them wrong and force them to rise to the occasion.

It all starts with you.