Negativity, in all it’s insidious, destructive and weakening ways will interfere with your belief, and oftentimes as an entrepreneur, your belief is all you have. A culture of complaining and negativity is more than enough to destabilise your business and you have to deal with that before it gets its tentacles in. Avoid negative thinking and negative people. Discourage and deflect them at every turn.

Here are some tactics to protect against the negative peril. They are taken loosely from Trevor Blake’s, “Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life.”

Of course he’s an American with glistening teeth and ample sincerity, so some of them are a bit wacky. However, since this is about positivity, try to take them in the spirit of achievability from which they probably came.

Of course your natural instinct is to spit this twaddle straight back out. That’s what they want you to do. That’s the cynical, negative and sneery conditioning you were rightly raised to have. “Who do you think you are? Get a nice job in a call centre like the rest of us. Don’t raise yourself up or we’ll claw you back down one way or another.” You’ve known this is true since you were at school, but it’s not true for you.

Don’t believe a word of it. Don’t let the disbelievers bring you down and infect you, your idea or your company with their defeatism. Churchill would have had them shot.

    1.   Change the negative to positive When you participate in negative dialog with a complainer, you’ll walk away feeling drained. Counter negativity with a positive image: “At least we’re in business.” etc.

    2. When trapped in a blatant complaint session with members of your team, try saying nothing. Let their words bounce off you while you think of something pleasant. Let your positive results by your answer.

    3.    Imagine that an invisible cloak made of positive energy lightly your mind and body. It’s lighter than air and protects you from others’ negative words and emotions. This is apparently what boxers do to deflect the negative energy of a hostile crowd.

    4.    Throw the responsibility back at them, “So what do you intend to do about it?” If they just want to vent rather than find a solution, this tactic should pull them up.

    5.    Forgive yourself. Everyone complains sometimes. You’re only human. The less you complain the less you will resort to it in the future.