How To Master The Art Of Receiving Feedback To Advance Your Career

Art and business are two very similar industries.

Art wouldn’t succeed without business, and business wouldn’t succeed without art.

The people who succeed in both endeavors all share some very similar traits:

  1. Creativity.
  2. Courage to try new things.
  3. Understanding of humanity.
  4. Understanding of cultural relevance.
  5. Enough humility to receive and implement feedback.

Feedback is crucial for any artistic and/or business endeavor. Without feedback, we are simply projecting our self-identified genius onto the world.

But the goal of any business or artistic endeavor is ultimately to serve the people. But if we don’t receive feedback from the people we’re supposed to be serving, we remain ignorant to the pathway that will lead to our success.

After understanding the necessary role of feedback, we also need to adjust our attitude to allow feedback to adequately influence our decisions. If we don’t do this, we will think that everything we do is right and that our own personal feedback is all that matters.

But it’s not.

Self talk feedback receive criticism
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(Source: Onsizzle)
  • We need to master our preconceptions.
  • We need to master our delusions.
  • We need to master our emotions.

With our emotions controlled, we then need to master The Art of Receiving Feedback.

How to accept negative feedback without losing your cool

1. Understand that you’re not perfect.

This is probably the hardest thing to do. We’re told from an early age things like:

  • “You can do anything you want”.
  • “The world is your oyster”.
  • “Who knows? One day you could wake up and be president”!

Sure, those are all great things to say, but reality works a little differently.

If you’ve ever had a failed relationship, your well-meaning friends have probably given you this advice:

“You’re perfect just the way you are”.

Sure. On an existential level, I suppose that’s accurate. You exist the way that you do and that can’t be anything other than what it is- in a spiritual sense, we could call that “perfection”.

But the problem with this kind of thinking is that it reinforces a staggering amount of delusions that we then have to battle with during our adult lives.

Because in reality:

  • You aren’t perfect.

But it’s not just you; no one is.

This includes the people telling you that you’re perfect. They aren’t perfect either.

Perfection is not real
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I think you meant to say, “close enough to the point of relative insignificance”.

We’re all battling with our own preconceptions of the world, and those preconceptions solidify our opinions. Without outside influence, we become entrenched in our own sense of the world as it exists inside of a vacuum.

But we don’t live in a vacuum; we live in the world.

You need an outside opinion. I need an outside opinion. We all need outside opinions because the outside opinion is what will determine our societal levels of “success”.

By momentarily laying down our defensive narcissism, we can begin listening to the thoughts of our society.

We know what we want, but unless we ask, we can’t know what everyone else wants.

2. Remain teachable.

In the Zen Buddhist tradition, there’s a saying:

This means that you should perform every task from the sense that it’s the first time you’re doing it. Even if you’ve done it 7,000 times before, act as if you are a beginner.

Basically, you need to cultivate the idea that you are a “student of Life”.

With this attitude, you stay open, curious, and receptive to the process of learning.

Get Feedback always learn
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I’m a student of Life… can I pay the “Student” price?

When you remain teachable, you acknowledge that you are not perfect (see #1) and that your ego and your pride are not true indicators of your abilities to thrive in society. When ego and pride are at excessive levels, they stand in the way of our ability to even see (let alone correct) our mistakes.

We believe that if we’re perfect, there are no mistakes. We believe that if we find mistakes, we are not good enough, or whole enough, or perfect enough. But if you can accept that perfection doesn’t exist, you can begin to accept that you make a lot of mistakes.

If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this:

  • Mistakes are opportunities.

It’s by making mistakes that we learn. But if we feel that we have nothing left to learn, then we won’t even comprehend the concept that we could be making mistakes.

Eventually, all of our endeavors will fail, and hopefully, if we remain teachable, we will be jolted awake.

Hopefully, if we remain teachable, we’ll come to understand this simple truth:

  • Failure is the pathway to success.

Our ability to always be a student is what will take our mediocre creations and turn them into life-changing realities.

3. You are not special.

Receiving feedback art business
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Nah, but like, my mom says I’m special. (Source: Aaron Palabyab)

Well, you are kind of special.

You are special in the sense that no one looks exactly like you, talks exactly like you, thinks exactly like you, feels exactly like you, moves exactly like you, and has had the same exact experiences as you.

In that sense, yes, you are special.

But because we have come to accept this as “truth”, we start to believe it must be inherent to everything.

But here’s the problem:

It’s not.

That’s not how it works. I’m sorry. I wish it was, but it’s not.

You will not walk down the street and some big-shot movie producer will make you the next Brad Pitt simply because “you’re special”.

  • Not gonna happen.

You are not going to sit at the piano for the first time and all of a sudden you’re playing Carnegie Hall with Yo Yo Ma simply because “you’re special”.

  • Not gonna happen.

You will probably not invent the next iPhone, the next Starbucks, the next Facebook, the next anything simply because “you’re special”.

  • Not gonna happen.

It’s fine to dream big, and who knows….. mmmmmaybe you will invent the next iPhone.

But riddle me this:

Did Steve Jobs invent the iPhone?

No.

Steve Jobs did not invent the iPhone.

A large team of creatives, designers, developers, thinkers, technicians, business people, consultants, statisticians, analysts, and really clever marketers invented the iPhone in a process that entirely revolved around receiving feedback.

Sure, Steve Jobs took the credit as the spearheader of the enterprise, but it was the team that ultimately created the concept, and it was the feedback that ultimately created the product.

My point here is this:

You are not an exception.

If someone is telling you, “This is not good”, you may want to listen to them because chances are, it’s not good.

In particular, if something is done sub-par, there is virtually no chance that it will take you to success. This point is hard for most people to swallow, which is why it’s also very important.

If you don’t actively work on your inadequacies, you will very likely not achieve what it is you want to achieve.

Taking advice
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Take my advice: Start taking more advice.

If you want to be the next Justin Bieber, but you can’t be bothered to practice singing more than twice a month, you won’t find that level of success.

  • The producers won’t “smooth it out in post”.

If you’re trying to be the next Neil Patel, but your website copy is filled with grammatical errors, you won’t find that level of success.

  • The audience will not look past the mistakes to “find the gems”.

If you think you’re the next Gandhi, but you believe spending 30 minutes a day arguing politics on Facebook is going to get you there, I’m sorry, you won’t find that level of success.

  • No one will suddenly “see it your way” unless they also see that you’re living, breathing, and fully engaging with that practice.

It takes great effort to achieve great things. If you put every ounce of strength into your endeavor, and accept others’ feedback with humility, you can achieve great things, but only if you understand that you need to work harder than you’ve ever worked before.

Here’s a nice tweetable quote for you:

[Tweet “To make $1 million, you need to do $1 million worth of work.”]

PS… I know many people get triggered by this point. But if we all release our delusions of grandeur, we can actually achieve many great things. Ironically, our delusions are what stand in the way of that greatness.

PPS… Many of the stories of “instant fame” are just that- stories. They’re crafted by smart marketing people to get you to buy more things. Why? Because it works. Why does it work? Because fairy tales are awesome; grueling work is not. Don’t believe the fairy tales. There is no substitute for hard work.

You Need Great Feedback To Be Successful

Understand that this is the process. Feedback is crucial for every successful business/artistic/creative/socially relevant endeavor.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again:

No one has ever had an idea and executed it to perfection without feedback.

That has never happened and will never happen.

Receiving critique and feedback
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Mr. Watson, I’ve invented the telephone and you didn’t help.

We all need an outside opinion. Even if your idea is legit brilliant, it needs to be reworked and refined according to the needs of the market/audience/society it’s impacting. If you don’t want to receive feedback, you’ll never get this socially relevant information and your work will suffer (regardless of its self-perceived brilliance).

If you don’t have the luxury of having an outside opinion (i.e. you have no friends), then do some research. Put yourself into the position of an outside observer. Lay down your ideas for a few weeks and then come back to them with a fresh mind. Proofread. Proofread again. Find holes. Fill those holes.

Give yourself constructive feedback.

Don’t sit there and say, “Oh I’m great, the world just can’t see it”. Instead, figure out what you’re doing wrong and fix it. All you need to do is remember the above three points.

Ask for help.

Get feedback.

Improve.

That’s the process.

That’s business.

That’s art.

That’s the art.

Master it, and you’ll master life.

How do you incorporate feedback into what you do? Do you have any feedback for me? Let me know in the comments below!

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Authored By
Eric Michelson is a man of many hats. Not literally. He seldom wears hats. He is a traveler, writer, artist, and thinker. He is the founder of Perspective Earth - a meeting space for great minds to discuss the most important issues of the day. You can follow him and his work on Facebook and Twitter.

12 thoughts on “How To Master The Art Of Receiving Feedback To Advance Your Career”

  1. Ajay Batti

    Hello Eric,
    The article is truly simple, comprehensive with relevant images and worth reading it. This article helped me to prepare for my presentation in the organization that i work for.

    Unfeigned regards,
    Ajay Batti

  2. Victorscorner

    I agree that it is good to receive feedbacks. Without it, not much improvement on our arts will be possible.

    In my short journey in blogging, I know that acting on some constructive feedbacks I received has helped alot.

    The feedback I will give to shoutmeloud is that the site is full of valuable resources to help rookie bloggers like me. Please keep the flag flying.

  3. Min Yon

    Yeah, that’s what i’m looking for the art of receiving feedback and also i completely agree with your argument that there is nothing perfect. For example, i have tried many times to create a perfect products but it is just improved and always have bugs so it is impossible to be perfect. Besides, feedback is really valuable for business and individual, especially someone to improve so it is the art of receiving feedback. I love the last process you mention above. it can help me to follow it and take it to improve.

    Thanks,
    Min

    1. Eric

      Glad this post can help you, Min. It’s always better to remain humble and seek for “improvements” rather than “perfection”. Perfection will never come, but improvements will come as long as you keep trying. So keep trying…!

  4. Swayam Prakash

    You’re really a proffesional writer and your writing style is also fabulous. I have had seen your previous post regarding writing tips that also helped me to improve my writing style. Thanks.

    1. Eric

      Thanks for the kind words Swayam! Glad I could help!

  5. Liszt

    Hey Eric, nice article right there. I love it! Keep writing. I’d love to see more from you. 🙂

    1. Eric

      Thanks Liszt! This is definitely something all creatives need to keep in mind. Taking in feedback from the environment and learning to grow better and better….

  6. shajeer

    Hi Eric,

    I am exactly agreeing the points you are here explained. When we work full of sincerity, we will have quality in our job. So definitely we will receive the good feedback from those who are feeling very well in our work. Also as you wrote, always remain teachable, that is the best way to get our efforts getting approved. Thanks for this pure gold article.

    Regards
    shajeer

    1. Eric

      Thanks Shajeer! Glad you could resonate with this. It’s often under-recognized that hard work is what makes success. We always need to keep working and keep improving…

  7. Palashtd

    Hi ERIC,
    I’ve been blogging for 6 months here at gosview.com . In my blogging journey, I’ve read thousands of blog post of various content writers. But your writing is different than them. Your content is really genius.
    Thanks for sharing your think.

    1. Eric

      Thanks Palashtd! I’ll try to keep them good words coming..

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