Aditya Kothadiya's Blog

I’ve written about need of a critic in any entrepreneurial journey in my previous post. Here is some excerpt from that post -

It’s very usual that we don’t like getting negative
feedbacks. Instead, we like those flattery comments from our friends
and family. Our problem is, we don’t believe in critics and at the same
time, we don’t benefit from loving friends and family. What we really
need is “loving critic” – someone who care deeply enough about us to
give us honest feedback about how we’re doing. I am lucky to have such loving critics who care enough about me doing the right things. 

Successful entrepreneurs embrace this philosophy and
seek for critical feedbacks from the community, from the team, from the
customers, and more. They do ask feedbacks about their performance to
their teammates. They listen to loving critics, and get regular feedbacks on how they’re
doing. Based on received feedbacks, they align their actions. And
that’s how we see successful companies doing exceptionally good.

On the same line, Dave Winer posted this on his blog –

You’ll never make your product better if you shut out all criticism. You have to iterate to hit the sweet spot.

Startups must be sponges.

I don’t often say people are wrong, I’d rather say products are flawed,
or companies make mistakes. But companies that try to shut down
critics, with personal attacks, are wrong. Startups that do it are worse than wrong, they’re doomed.

I hope you got the point. Always remember –

Pity the leader caught between unloving critics and uncritical lovers. — John Gardner