Recently, I wrote about my growing gaggle of ankle-biters.
Ankle-biters being people who know they can’t rise to your level, and so haunt forums, and blogs, and social media wasting their lives lobbing cheap shots, personal attacks, and lame attempts to try to tear you down to raise themselves up (which never works) — because they’re still stuck in mommy’s basement angrily eating cheetos and glued to porn all day (literally and/or figuratively) instead of doing real work. Since they can’t bite off your head (i.e. beat you) they can only nip at your ankles. And, like the proverbial angry, ankle-biting dachshund, if they aren’t nipping at your ankles, they are probably going to try to hump your ankle to show their so-called “dominance.” (Figuratively humping your ankle, hopefully not literally, but you never know with some of these seething goo-roo fanboys heh).
Anyway…
I got several responses to that email.
One of which was from a guy who has been plagued by his own growing number of ankle-biters/humpers.
They’re really affecting him.
He is having trouble ignoring them.
And, has this urge to always respond back to lies, personal attacks, etc which just wastes his time, makes him more stressed, and further arouses the ankle-humpers attacking him.
He wanted to know what he should do?
My answer:
1. First, they can make great email fodder.
(You owe it to the ankle-humping schlubs to profit from them, they are putting in all that work, after all…)
2. Yes, ankle-biters and humpers are annoying.
But, they’re mostly harmless.
(Unless you get a real psycho on your hands.)
And, eventually they get tired.
All that biting and humping takes energy, after all.
And, what sustains them is your one-on-one reaction.
They want to know they have some significance in the world (because they are too afraid to do anything with their own lives and, thus, attach themselves to yours, like a parasite). And by you stressing out, arguing back, getting into long, pointless debates via email with them, etc you simply feed their parasitic need for drama.
And, as long as you feed them, they’ll come back.
So don’t nourish them.
Let them eat on their own emotions, instead.
And, when they run out of “food”, they’ll have no choice but to leave and find a new host to attach to somewhere else.
Hey, do what you want with this info.
But I’ve seen it many times.
In fact, back when I did client work, one of my clients was the biggest in the self defense niche for many years before retiring from it. And he was constantly being lied about and tarnished in the forums, blogs, and social media sites. The bigger his business grew, the more aggressive the ankle-biting and ankle-humping attempts became.
He said it’s just how the game goes.
It’s like a yard stick for success, in many ways.
If you do anything significant you’re going to get haters.
But, he realized that eventually the squawkers will get bored, or uninterested in you, and move on to some other person’s ankle to try to hump to get their jollies from.
Anyway, moral of the story?
Ignore them.
This is the same as kicking them off your ankle.
Probably, they will come back.
But, then you just keep kicking them off.
(By ignoring them.)
And then, eventually, they’ll disappear.
’nuff said.
Now, on to business:
If you ain’t getting attacked by the ankle-biters and humpers you’re not trying hard enough.
Enter the “Email Players” newsletter.
Using my system by default will likely get you more haters.
But, also more sales, too.
If you’re worried about some loser living in mommy’s basement hating on you don’t subscribe. You will almost certainly attract a lot of them.
Instead, keep playing it safe.
Keep being plain vanilla.
And, keep out of the ankle-humpers sights.
Fact is, not everyone has the stomach for this.
(As much as I wish more people did.)
For everyone else?
Subscription info is here:
Ben Settle
