“Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” — Mark Twain
Some people might scoff at the idea of negative energy, but most people will admit that a negative person will make them feel worse overall. A negative person on a workforce can lower everyone’s performance, and a negative person on a sports team makes the losses feel even worse. When a person belittles your work, it can be very painful. Your art teacher tells you that your project isn’t quite good enough, even though you have spent hours working on it. Comments like these make you want to quit the job, leave the team, or stop working on a project or dream.
Consider, for a moment, if you will, the life of Vincent Van Gogh. One would be hard pressed to name a more well-known and well-loved painter. Some of his most famous paintings include The Night Café, The Starry Night, and his many self-portraits. He was extremely prolific throughout his lifetime, producing almost one thousand wonderful paintings. However, he sold very, very few of his paintings during his lifetime. Despite this fact, he continued to produce paintings that were full of color and life. In fact, Van Gogh did not become famous until many years after his death. Now, his paintings sell for many millions of dollars, and there is a museum dedicated to his work.
Despite the fact that people must have belittled him, he continued to paint throughout his life. It must have been very discouraging to not be recognized for all his effort during his life. Van Gogh did not have the good fortune to meet many great people during his life—those that would have made him feel great as well, but he never stopped painting.
If you work to surround yourself with great people, you will be better able to achieve your own dreams. These people will support you and help you during your journey. Small people, however, will make you feel like your dreams are not important. Maybe Van Gogh was surrounded by small people, who made him feel like his paintings were not any good. He still managed to find the strength to persevere and to continue painting.
So, in the end, you should try to avoid small, negative people who belittle you, but if you cannot avoid them, you should attempt to find the strength to deal with them. By knowing that they are, in fact, small people, you will know that their negative opinions should not bother you. You should also remember that like attracts like, and you should ask yourself how can you be a great person?
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