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Got Crabs?

January 25, 2008

Got Crabs? My wife and I were having a conversation with a friend who writes a weekly column in our local paper. It's not unusual for him to receive both positive and negative feedback to his articles. He shared one particular letter he'd received from a recent article. After reading it and reading his response, I basically said you know, there's a perfect example of someone with too much time on their hands. They're just jealous that they don't have the clients and respect that you have.

In their letter, this person had quoted various sources and experts who supported the opposite point of view as our friend. But the overall tone of the letter was mean and hateful. They could have chosen to write and ask if he'd seen the research they were quoting, or what his opinion was, instead, they were condescending and demeaning.

We talked back and forth a little about the subject of his article and his post, but mostly about why this person even bothered to write him. Why did they spend the time to write hate mail so to speak and send it to him? Do you know what his answer was?

Crabs...

Our friend asked us if we'd ever been crabbing.

We both responded "no" and gave him a strange look I'm sure.

We were both thinking "what do crabs have to do with this?"

He said when you go crabbing you don't need to cover your bucket as long as you have more than one crab. Because if there's more than one crab in the bucket and one crab starts to climb out, the other crabs will grab him and pull him back down.

Life's the same way.

You're always fighting the crabs trying to pull you back down into the bucket. Don't let them do it! Keeping trying to get out of that bucket!!!

Sincerely,
Fred

About the Author

Fred Black is an experienced online business operator, programmer, web site developer, father, husband, musician, and songwriter. Visit his Internet Business Blog at: http://www.pqInternet.com.

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Posted by Fred on January 25, 2008 | Printer-Friendly

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Comments:

From: Robert Phillips

Exactly! People often ask "Why do you have to be different?" or "Why can't you just be like everyone else?" The answer is because I have no desire to be part of someone else's plan. I don't want to rent myself out for 40+ hours per week at a fraction of what I'm worth, etc. etc.

The crab reference reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:

"A lobster, when left high and dry among the rocks, does not have sense enough to work his way back to the sea, but waits for the sea to come to him. If it does not come, he remains where he is and dies, although the slightest effort would enable him to reach the waves, which are perhaps within a yard of him. The world is full of human lobsters; people stranded on the rocks of indecision and procrastination, who, instead of putting forth their own energies, are waiting for some grand billow of good fortune to set them afloat."

- Dr. Orison Swett Marden

Crabs...Lobsters...What's the difference? Apparently there's a lot to learn from crustaceans.
Posted by Robert Phillips on January 25, 2008 10:50 AM
From: Chris Shouse

There is always someone or something out there ready to drag you back to the masses if your head is just a little bit above. Reminds me if you stay FOCUSED on the target no one can drag you down.
Posted by Chris Shouse on January 25, 2008 12:35 PM
From: I climb kilimanjaro

When you don't have any negative comments ever on your blog, it means that either your readers don't care or they all agree with you. I don't that every reader would agree with you, so they probably don't care.

When you have people who care enough to disagree with you, you know they will be back and that they like reading your blog!

Negative comments are a good thing.
Posted by I climb kilimanjaro on January 27, 2008 11:53 AM
From: Duncan Longshaw

People seem to hate other people doing better than them.

Here in Australia we call it "tall poppy syndrome", and sadly it seems to be part of the culture these days.

With online systems you can set yourself up to deal with this. James Brausch has a quite radical solution to this- all comments on his blog get moderated by other people, and anything negative gets deleted straight away. He even takes this a step further- any customer emails that use bad language get automatically deleted by a filter, and automatically given a refund.

Seems a bit radical, but would be a great way to get the negative influences out of your life.

Duncan
Posted by Duncan Longshaw on January 28, 2008 3:25 AM
From Fred...

Duncan;
I think James takes it too far, way too far.
Fred
Posted by Fred Black on January 28, 2008 8:25 AM
From: Tim Gary

Duncan, That's hillarious! re: "He even takes this a step further- any customer emails that use bad language get automatically deleted by a filter, and automatically given a refund."

Sounds like he has a lot of *very* unhappy customers! Otherwise he wouldn't even need a rule such as this.

Thanks for the laugh!
Tim

PS. I love seeing other people do well, when they have great products, support and attitude. See: Terry Dean, Fred Black, Robert Phillips, and many others. As for filtering the negative, James is top of the list to filter in many ways. From name calling to manipulation, it's all there. Want a chill to run down your back? Then check this: www.howcultswork.com and especially look at topics related to "commercial" or "business". Does anything look familiar?

Peace.
Posted by Tim Gary on January 28, 2008 2:17 PM