How to Use Your Critics for Immense Gain

You got fired by your dumb-bag boss.

You got flamed by a social media troll.

You got a lousy review from some know-it-all pretender who couldn’t find her own butt with her hands, much less do what you do.

Good.

Now you’ve got a choice to make.

You can either curl up in a ball in your closet and never come out…

…or you can use your anger to propel yourself to new heights of success.

In 1983 a talented young guitarist was kicked out of his band right after they signed their first record deal. They were about to record their first album in New York when they woke up their guitarist and handed him a bus ticket back to L.A. with no explanation.

What the heck??!

It’s a long bus ride across the U.S., and by the time his bus hit L.A., he’d gotten over his self-pity and vowed to start a new band. He decided that this new band would be so successful, his old band members would be green with envy. They’d be flipping burgers and playing lousy gigs in clubs while he was onstage in front of thousands.

This guitar player practiced like a man possessed. He searched high and low for the very best musicians for his band – all better musicians than those guys in his previous band. His anger fueled his ambition and revenge became his muse. He wrote dozens of songs, made numerous musical connections and within a couple of years his band signed a record deal of their own. A year after that, their first record went gold.

The guitarist’s name was Dave Mustaine, now considered one of the most brilliant and influential musicians in the history of heavy metal music. His band is Megadeath, and they have toured the world many times over and sold over 25 million albums.

Great story, right? That is exactly how you can use your critics to fuel your own success.

There’s one more thing you should know about this story: The band that was stupid enough to kick Dave Mustaine out was known as Metallica, and they sold 180 million albums. Metallica is considered by many to be one of the greatest tock bands of all time.

And because of this and despite all of his massive success, Dave Mustaine still considers himself a failure because he was the one who got kicked out of Metallica.

Which I guess just goes to show that success and motivation are all about the thoughts you choose. Dave could have chosen to give up music, but instead he used his anger to motivate himself to became a legend.

Dave has millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of adoring fans and a career doing what he loves. And yet, Dave still thinks he’s a failure because his metric of measuring success is to compare his band with Metallica.

Dave values ‘beating’ Metallica more than doing what he loves, more than making millions and more than having his own band and millions of fans.

What do you value? And how will you know when you’re a success?