1. If you spent more time on Netflix this month than working on your dream, don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

2. If you’ve talked about what you’re going to do for a year, but haven’t done anything, don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

3. If you’ve got a million plans but zero actions, don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

4. If you’ve changed ideas a thousand times, don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

5. If you’re ignoring your commitments in order to work on your dream, don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

6. If you’ve told your spouse, “I’m serious this time,” more than 10 times, don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

7. If you’ve already taken your family to the brink of destruction on other ill-planned dreams, don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

I wish someone handed me this blog post on my wedding day. I would have given them a disposal camera in exchange since nobody could take photos with their phone because that technology didn’t exist yet.

Knowing those seven things might have saved me a lot of hollow talking and would have pushed me into real action. It also would have saved Jenny and I thousands and thousands of dollars in marriage counseling.

Want a bonus item? Here you go:

8. If your spouse forwarded you this blog post, you’re on this list somewhere. Don’t get mad that your spouse has a hard time supporting you.

Please tweet this:

p.s. To deal with all 8 of those reasons, do the exercises in Do Over.

We all have the same dream.

If we can figure out our thing perfectly, no one will criticize it.

Our photos will not be criticized.

Our business will not get a negative review.

Our book will skate through Amazon with nothing but 5-stars.

Maybe deep down you know that is impossible, but on some level, when you sit down to create, a small voice pipes up:

“Don’t share something publicly until it’s so good that no one can criticize it.”

That simple sentence has kept many a book stuck in a laptop, many a business stuck in a head and many a painting stuck in the studio.

But is it possible?

Can you create something that will go completely unscathed? Is criticism an indication you didn’t try hard enough? Is negative feedback a sign you made the wrong thing?

Nope.

How do I know?

Because of blog post #872.

The first 871 blog posts I wrote for a site of mine were satire.

For post 872 I invited a friend to write a funny piece about politics. It didn’t take sides. It didn’t argue for policy. It was lighthearted and silly.

The next day, someone on Twitter told me, “Remember when your site was funny and not all political?”

This really surprised me at the time because I was young and dumb and just acquiring my thick Internet skin. I didn’t understand the game. I thought that there was a way to create something that was untouchable by the talons of the world wide webs.

My blog posts were numbered at the time, so the person who was reading #872 could clearly see that 871 others had come before it. This was not a first time reader, this was a long time reader.

I’m not good at math, but I’m positive that 1 out of 873 posts doesn’t mean that my blog is “all political.”

It was in that moment that I realized the lesson that no matter what you do it will be criticized. Slave away for months. Dot every i and cross every t. It is impossible to create something that everyone will like.

Most people stop right there. They get depressed by that truth and decide to stop creating.

What’s the point? It’s just going to be attacked anyway. I might as well not share anything with anyone.

Quitting at that moment is a mistake because on the other side of this idea is an amazing freedom.

Let’s rewrite the sentence, “No matter what you do, it will be criticized.” The new second half of it should be, “so make sure it’s something you’re crazy about in the first place.”

This isn’t a new idea. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized, anyway.” (My heart is a terrible, terrible liar at times so I don’t completely agree with using that as a compass, but the point she was making is very true.)

Some people are going to love what you do. Some are going to hate it.

Every time you make something, this is the reality.

Trying to make 100% of people like your work is not only a silly goal, it’s an impossible one.

When I told the person on Twitter that I disagreed that 1 political post out of 873 means my whole site is political, she apologized. (This was the second time in recorded history that a stranger on the Internet has apologized.)

She said she was having a bad day and took it out on my blog.

Her criticism had nothing to do with the contents of my blog. It wasn’t about me or the guest post.

In order to avoid her criticism, I would have needed to write something that fixed her bad day. Only I didn’t know she existed, which would have made fixing her bad day with the power of my words pretty difficult.

I wish there was a way to avoid criticism. If I knew the secret I could turn it into a course and a webinar and a bunch of digital resources that I sell for $997 today but if you act now I’ll throw in a free 4-page PDF that I’m calling an “e-book.”

If you create anything, you will get criticized. That’s the ticket price for awesome.

Don’t quit.

Let ‘em hate, still create.

P.S.

Life is too long to have a job you don’t love. Build one today with this.

A multi-billion dollar company wants my friend to do free work for them in exchange for exposure.

The company makes billions of dollars a year and wants to pay him zero dollars for the honor of working with them. This kind of thing often drives me crazy.

A lot of companies are doing that these days. “We won’t pay you for your designs, writing, photos, code, INSERT SKILL HERE, but it will be great exposure for you.”

The challenge is that sometimes it makes sense to do some free work. It’s not a black and white issue, there’s a whole lot of gray.

Here are 10 things you need to keep in mind.

1. If someone asks you to work for free because it will be great exposure, ask them to specify what that means. If they can’t, don’t.

2. Exposure that can’t be detailed or explained is fake exposure. Here’s the difference: Real exposure = “We have a mailing list of 100,000 people and will send an email to everyone on March 9th with links to your site or social platforms.” Fake exposure = “Our people will love your work and will definitely check you out.” Get specific or don’t expect anything valuable.

3. It’s on you to make sure they deliver on the exposure. Don’t wait for the company to send out the email or post about your work. Do your best to be persistent without pestering.

4. Exposure comes in a lot of shapes and sizes. In addition to a new audience finding out about you, working with the right clients can legitimize you. If you need to build up your resume, the ability to say, “I worked with Apple” has real value.

5. If you’re going to be shy about using the street cred that exposure gives you, don’t bother doing the work for free. Exposure you don’t cash in on is useless.

6. Dear companies who take advantage of the free model, I just came up with a new idea. Here it is, “You get what you pay for.” When you demand someone work for free, don’t be surprised if the work isn’t amazing. If you wouldn’t work for free, why do you expect other people to?

7. Play the system. In some industries, to get your foot in the door you have to work a free internship. If that’s the case and you want the job bad enough, play the system. I would have loved to be paid for every speaking gig I did when I was starting out, but guess what? I wasn’t good enough to get paid. I had to earn that. That wasn’t failure, that’s how that process works.

8. Beware the free client. The most difficult and demanding clients I have ever worked with are the ones who wanted me to work for free or at a grossly reduced rate. I know that doesn’t make any sense, but I promise it’s true.

9. Volunteer for free when you want to. That’s ultimately what I dislike about this whole game, it removes your ability to be generous. Donate your time. Give your skills and talents to causes you’re passionate about. But don’t let someone force you to.

10. Joy is pretty amazing form of currency too. I still do some free work just because it’s fun. In the grind to build a business, don’t forget to smile.

Should you work for free? No. But also yes.

Do you deserve to be paid more for what you do?

Maybe, if you’re great at what you do.

To get great, read my New York Times Bestselling, worth $1,000 but on sale for only $15 book, Do Over.

Considering it took me 18 years of employment to write, that’s practically free.

But maybe I needed the exposure.