No one gets criticized more than superstars.
With 3 Championships and an All Star career that is certain to send him to the Hall of Fame, Dwayne Wade is a superstar for sure. But this year, he and his team have faced the most intense scrutiny ever. Dwayne has been held back by a balky bruised knee all year, driving his numbers lower than ever before.
The media has been merciless in its questioning about him and his team. How could they win? Was he going to make much of a contribution? Was his career over? They weren’t tall enough, tough enough, healthy enough—if you took them seriously, you’d go crazy.
But this isn’t new for Wade.
He’s not a rookie. He’s heard it all before. It may be more intense this year, but it’s not new. So what has Dwayne learned about critics and dealing with them after all this time? How can he stay focused and not pick up at least some of their doubts? That would be a great thing for us to know because all of us have critics.
Sometimes the criticism gets to us.
You can get criticism no matter what you do. Critics don’t like it if you under achieve – you’re lazy, you’re entitled, you’re unreliable. You can get criticized if you over achieve—show boat, ego manic, self-centered. Someone is always going to find something not to like as soon as you come on their radar.
“People react to criticism in different ways, and my way is definitely to come out fighting.” —David Beckham
The only ones who escape are the ones who never do anything significant enough to be noticed. But once you start climbing the charts, you get noticed. As I learned long ago, “The higher up the flagpole you climb, the more people can see your rear – and some of them aren’t going to like what they see.”
If you’re human, and most of you are, you’re going to find those attacks sting. You’ll be better off learning how to handle it.
So what can we learn from Dwayne? What’s his secret that allows him to overcome the doubts of the critics, operate in the never ending glare of the major media spotlight, and win big anyway? After this recent win in the 2013 NBA Championship he revealed what it was:
“My faith in my team was greater than the criticism of my critics!”
