Tim Ferriss: How to deal with haters

We get our fair share of hate-mail and angry comments here at TNW, and we have become comfortable with taking some abuse. It’s all part of the game. And if you do anything online – especially if you don’t mind expressing an opinion – you better have a thick skin.

Still, it’s interesting and comforting to hear how other people deal with this. Hearing it from Tim Ferriss is even better, because the guy can tell a story like nobody else.

I first met Ferriss on a Greek Island when we were both speaking at an event about blogging. Most speakers were Greek, except for Ferriss, Matt Mullenweg (WordPress founder) and myself. That means we all did our talks on the first day, and then were free to explore the island and just hang out.

A few years later we decided to invite Ferriss to our conference, for the 2010 edition. He asked us if he could do a little experiment on stage, and of course we gave him total freedom to do whatever he wanted.

I sat there, first row, notebook in hand, and remember it very well. Some talks really strike a nerve and stay with you forever. It pays off too watch the whole thing, but if you are in a hurry, just watch the first two or three minutes and then skip to minute 22:00 and watch the next two minutes to see the grand surprise.

You’ll see (or hear, mostly) that it takes the audience a few long seconds to realize what just happened. I won’t ruin the surprise, but it is a delightful little trick that Ferriss pulls that really illustrates the point of his talk:

Tim Ferriss keynote The Next Web Conference 2010 – Love the Haters from The Next Web on Vimeo.

I stumbled upon this talk as we prepare for #TNW2017 this May.

If you want to see more amazing talks like these check out our conference pages.