You'll Never Get Slagged Off By Someone Doing Better Than You | Episode 26
An impromptu one — but sometimes the unplanned episodes are the best ones. Rob's had a run-in with a hater this week. Not a faceless internet troll, but someone in the Leicestershire business networking community who's had it in for him for a couple of years. He's telling the full story, naming what she did, and using it as a jumping-off point for something every entrepreneur needs to hear.
The Universal Entrepreneur Experience No matter how successful you become — whether you're Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or a small business owner in the East Midlands — there will always be people who slag you off. People who preach positivity, champion mental health hashtags, and then quietly go about undermining anyone doing better than them. Rob's seen it everywhere. This week, it landed on his doorstep.
What Actually Happened A lady in the Leicestershire networking circuit — who works in business development for a college and has also authored a novel — has had it in for Rob for two to three years. Every time Rob promotes his networking event, Fresh Networking (running since 2019), she responds within the hour promoting a rival group. Fine. Rob has no problem with that.
What crossed a line: she went onto Fresh Networking's Facebook page and commented on a \"Meet the Member\" post, tagging a competing networking group and implying Rob had stolen their idea. A direct, public dig.
Rob responded calmly and professionally, pointing out that Fresh Networking has celebrated its members since day one in 2019. He then messaged the lady directly — friendly, measured — and got blocked. She deleted the comment. He has the screenshots.
The Backstory Two or three years ago, Rob went out of his way to support this woman. He bought her book. He had her on his other podcast, How I Failed in Business, to promote it — and by his account it was one of the best episodes he ever recorded. Later, a separate guest mentioned a piece of light-hearted banter involving her — completely in context, completely in jest — and that episode happened to go out before hers. She was upset. Rob pulled the relevant segment within hours. Her own episode was never aired and remains on a hard drive. He did everything right. She's been bad-mouthing him ever since.
The Lesson Here it is, plain and simple: you will never get slagged off by someone doing better than you. Elon Musk isn't scrolling Facebook to complain someone's copying his ideas. Jeff Bezos isn't walking into bookshops demanding to know why they exist. The hatred flows downhill — from people who aren't where they want to be, aimed at people who are moving in the right direction.
Rise to it if you have to — but do it calmly, do it with receipts, and let the quality of your work do the rest.
Haters are a byproduct of success — not a sign you're doing something wrong. If someone's going out of their way to undermine you, ask yourself one question: are they doing better than you? The answer will tell you everything you need to know.
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