Stephen Turban, co-founder of Lumiere Education and Harvard graduate, shared on LinkedIn how he woke up to 4,000 Reddit users calling him a “toxic loser”. This backlash came after an earlier post where he spoke about taking his team to Bali, which some found arrogant.
A friend told him about the angry comments. But, Turban said he didn’t feel sad. Instead, he felt joy. He believes, that when people talk about you, it means your message is reaching far. According to him, online criticism is not as important as feedback from friends or family.
“I was happy because this is exactly what I want. Here’s the thing: most people are way too scared about being criticised online. It feels scary because it’s very human,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
“If your close friends criticised you, that would genuinely suck. But, online criticism? Honestly, it doesn’t matter,” he added.
Turban believes attention helps spread your message. It gives you power. Even if people dislike what you say, it means you’re making an impact.
“Being known is far more powerful than any specific comment or attack. For example, yesterday, I received 34 DMs on LinkedIn to apply to my founder’s office. All of them read my post,” Turban wrote.
“And here’s the thing: if you are cringy online, someone will always attack you. Someone will always take fault. Disagree. Get angry. And that’s fine – it’s their choice to do so,” he wrote.
“But, here’s where I think most people mess up. Criticism is not a sign of you f**king up,” he added.
LinkedIn users reacted to his post. Many of them disagreed with him.
“They’re trashing you for being an entitled pompous a$$ who thinks everyone else’s life sucks,” wrote one user.
One user quipped, “I’m inclined to like you, Stephen, but I love Reddit more.”
“Nothing shows the world that you don’t care what the world thinks about you more than a really long post explaining that you don’t care what the world thinks about you,” came a sarcastic reply.
What did Stephen Turban write earlier?
Stephen Turban earlier shared on LinkedIn that he was taking his 80-member team to Bali in two weeks. The Harvard graduate called his employees “crushers”, who had studied at prestigious institutions like Harvard, Oxford, Princeton, Dartmouth, Stanford and Ashoka.
He said the team would explore Ubud, visit the Monkey Forest and enjoy nature in Bali. However, what might have offended social media users was his statement, “And, if you’re not going? Your life f***ing sucks.”