Criticism

As the legendary creative director of Saatchi & Saatchi, Paul Arden, once said, "Do not seek praise, seek criticism." It is relatively easy to get approval if you ask enough people, and generally people want to be nice and will want to say things which you want to hear. But these pleasantries do not help very much in improving oneself.

It is natural to be uncomfortable with criticism, but being too defensive in trying to explain everything defeats the whole intent of dispensing constructive feedback. We must have the basic faith that feedback is given with the singular intent of helping each other to get better. That the small, specific steps if taken, may lead to a more positive end point. We may not be right everytime in the feedback that is dispensed, but there must be an open mind in the receiving end to fairly gauge an different perspective other than their own.

Having a closed door only detaches one from reality.