Have you ever met a hater who’s doing better than you? Neither have I.
A colleague once told me, “If you’re not making some people uncomfortable, you’re probably not doing your job well.” Success has a way of doing that. It challenges expectations, disrupts norms, and—whether people admit it or not—sparks jealousy. In this business, that jealousy is always there, sometimes loud, often quiet.
Players deal with it all the time. A few critics will speak up, but most stay silent, talking behind the scenes rather than to your face. They may not like you, but they can’t stop watching what you do.
It’s not just players, either. Parents can fuel it. Coaches, scouts, even advisers can fall into it—especially when they see others succeeding in ways they aren’t. More often than not, the loudest critics are people who once stood close to you. When you move forward and they don’t, your growth becomes their frustration.
Every successful person faces this. It doesn’t matter if it’s hockey or business or anything else. The higher you go, the more visible you become—and the more opinions you attract. Some come from people who don’t know you at all, forming judgments from a distance and expecting their opinions to matter.
The mistake is giving those voices your attention. Engaging with negativity doesn’t solve anything—it just drains the time and energy you could be investing in your own path.
Because here’s the reality: success requires doing things differently. The best players don’t follow the crowd—they build their own process, trust it, and commit to it. The same is true in any field. People who achieve uncommon results take uncommon actions. They separate themselves from the majority that stays comfortable, does the same things, and ultimately gets the same outcomes.
And within that majority, you’ll often find the most criticism.
The common thread among haters isn’t insight—it’s a lack of progress, a lack of direction, or a lack of results. That doesn’t mean they’re bad people, but it does mean their opinions shouldn’t carry weight in your decisions.
So don’t focus on them. Progress naturally creates resistance. It always will.
Just remember: people who spend their time talking behind your back are in that position for a reason—they’re behind you.
Joseph Kolodziej
