A special thanks to the haters

Honestly I have dealt with haters all of my life...

Pretty much since Junior Infants I have had issues with people, fallen out with groups, been the victim of bullying - and when I was younger I thought that would all end as soon as I became an adult.

Unfortunately it seems to get worse, especially when you go out into the working world and especially in an extremely competitive industry like the one I am in.

Embracing haters and not giving a shit

I first noticed it when other people in my field didn't seem too keen on me when I started out as a journalist (aged 21), and that increased significantly when I won Showbiz Journalist of The Year at the NNI's back in 2012.

I've always been the type of person that if I admire someone (man or woman) I want to learn from them, I aspire to be them, but I've found most people in that situation just want to take the bitch down.

It's really sad that people feel that way, and I feel sorry for anyone who does, but what's even sadder is that I used to let it get to me, and finally I've turned all the bad into good.

I started Goss.ie 18 months ago and I've probably experienced the same negativity in that space of time that I felt in a school yard as a child, isolated, ganged up on and self-conscious.

So many people have an opinion on the business, competitors have tried to intimidate me and my social media channels seem to be the topic of conversation quite often - Twitter and Snapchat mainly.

Don't get me wrong I have some amazing people in my life, and friends I couldn't live without, people who constantly keep me going, but for every genuine person there are about five haters out there.

They tell me it's jealousy, that people don't like success - and especially when there's a young girl behind a company.

But I've seen this happen in Ireland a lot - and not just with women, people just love being negative, hoping people will fail, Tweeting negative crap without even thinking.

In the past I've struggled with haters, caring about what other people think, how my decisions will be perceived, but recently I've started to use hate to spur me on.

I know a lot of people read this blog, and probably for the wrong reasons - to share it with colleagues, to bitch, to moan, but I want to say thanks for building up the stats for me :).

You see it's so easy to wallow when people are being negative about you or gunning for you to fail, but I've decided to embrace the hate and turn it into pure motivation.

Every negative word spoken about me fuels me to win better and harder that day at work.

Every bitchy comment about my lifestyle spurs me to have even more fun, and share even more photos and videos doing it.

Every time you share my articles to slag them off, you are literally putting money into my pocket.

Every question over my business and doubts about it's success makes me sell more ads and make more money.

So thank you haters, I love you (you were always going to hate this one anyway).

Ali

x

Dreaming, Believing, and SERIOUSLY Werking...