Over the years I have been in business, I have had more than my fair share of ‘business assassins', you know those people that for whatever reason they just want to take you and your business out. Fortunately, I'm still here and most of them have slithered back into the mire that they came from. However, this isn't unique to me, lots of business owners I speak to have encountered the same so it begs the question
How do you Identify Business Assasins and protect yourself from them?
We all have people in our lives that act as cheerleaders and who are great for our self-esteem. We also often have people around us who bring us down. Or maybe it’s a particular place or situation that makes you feel inadequate or self-conscious. It’s important to be aware of these people, places, and situations that will bring you down. When you know who and what they are, you can guard against them and if possible avoid them.
Become Aware Of The Negative Energy
Your self-confidence takes the biggest hit when you are unaware of the person or situation you’re walking into. When you feel blind-sided, it hurts and it’s hard to recover and rebuild your self-esteem and courage. I like to think of how these people, places, and situations affect us as negative energy. Your first task is to become aware of this negative energy and realise where it’s coming from before it hits you. By simply being aware you avoid being surprised.
Gut instinct, intuition whatever you want to call it always plays a big part for me. EVERY time and I mean every single time I have ignored my gut about a situation a place or an individual it has turned out badly for me and my business so nowadays it's my goto compass on how I am in certain situations, sometimes it takes years for the masks to slip and sometimes hours but trust your gut and you won't go too far wrong.
Guard Against It And Neutralize It Going In
Once you are aware of what or who is bringing you down, you can start to guard against it. The basic idea is to neutralize the negative energy that’s being sent your way. One of my favorite ways of doing this is to expect it going in and realizing what’s causing it. For example, if your biggest client is tearing into you because of something that normally they would ignore you have to think what's happening in their life right now? is business good for them or are there stress factors contributing to their behaviour? It helps to know that they may be doing it to make themselves feel better if they are going through a tough time themselves. Realising this going in will go a long way towards neutralising things. Of course another way to guard yourself is to do what you can avoid interacting with the people that bring you down and of course avoiding the places and situations that make you feel bad.
I have found over time that every situation that has shown extreme negativity is down to where that person is in their life, it's hard and takes time to not accept what they are saying or doing to you as a personal slight. However it can be done, I know because I do it now with ease.
Adjust Your Life As Needed Until You Feel More Confident And Courageous
Last but not least, avoiding people, places, and situations that will bring you down is always an option. If you know a conversation with a certain client or associate will make you feel less confident, or you feel judged when going to a certain club or event, avoid those people and places for now. I’m not saying you have to cut them out indefinitely. Instead, take a break and focus on building up your confidence and your self-esteem. When you’re ready, you can go back to spending time with those people or hanging out at those places and see how it goes. Often the experience is completely different for you when you approach it in a confident manner.
Conclusion
In business, you find an amazing array of different people and situations more so than if you were an employee so, without doubt, you will come across people like those I have mentioned, your job whilst staying humble is to work out your strategy for raising your emotional shield when these people come into your life and then how you deal with it afterwards, it's never easy but can always be done.
Let me know in the comments if you have had any ‘business assassins' in your life and how you dealt with them.
