"Surround yourself with people who respect and treat you well."
American Author/Speaker
As creative leaders, we can be very sensitive to the comments of others. If people negate our art, we may stop painting or writing or even creating altogether. We face rejection from world every day. "Oh, you are a writer? Have you written anything that I might have read?" We face rejection when we submit our work to magazines and publishers. I once send out the same haiku to two different publishers by accident. I discovered my mistake when I open the mail one day. I received a rejection letter from one magazine and the other magazine wanted to publish the haiku.
Rejection is very common not only for writers, but also painters and actors. Think about auditioning for a part in a play or a movie and you are judged not only on your acting talent but also on your appearance. You are either too short, too tall, too fat or too ugly.
And some people won't even submit their creative work to the scrutiny of the public eye. They refuse to give others the opportunity to judge or criticize them.
So the message in this quote is very powerful. Surround yourself with people who respect the work you do, who don't criticize you, who support you and compliment you. The friends we choose are very important to our success.
