How to Deal With Unsupportive Friends and Family

Ultimately, it's natural to seek recognition, love and support from our friends and family. But what if, one day, we decided to venture onto a different path in life? One that is not as conventional as the others around us have chosen for themselves. Our support systems might be taken off guard with our non-traditional desires and aspirations of being entrepreneurs. The last thing we want is to be ridiculed for exploring the unknown.

You may confuse a lot of people when going against the grain of conventional thinking, and that's perfectly okay. As an entrepreneur, standing up for your vision to your family and friends might possibly be the best practice you will get for the life that awaits you. When you are competing for attention and eyeballs, articulating value and evoking possibility and vision can be powerful tools.
Below are three ways that will help in overcoming the obstacles of unsupportive friends and family.

Don't argue. If you decided to turn down a degree in law or business, a higher paying job or are transitioning completely from your current career to pursue your entrepreneurial dreams, you are going to cause a lot of confusion and judgment from those around you.
When confronted in this manner, do not argue. Your relatives and friends will have a hard time seeing things from your point of view, and they may even refuse to do so. They will only understand the career paths they are familiar with. Avoid setting up a confrontational battle.

Related: The Right Way to Ask Your Parents to Finance Your Business
No matter how much energy and frustration you pour out, you may not change their minds. You can be the greatest persuader in the world and yet your friends and family will be tied to their own opinions.
Instead of arguing, articulate your desire in a language they will understand: share the vision you have of your business and assure them that you will be responsible with your decisions. Tell them their support means a great deal to you.

Recognize authentic friendships. Anyone can freely offer their opinions. When beginning your entrepreneurial journey, acknowledge that you become a product of the five people you spend the most time with. So choose your company wisely.
There will be many people that will await your failure. I call this group the "I told you so" bunch. Be wary of their presence. Your intention is to develop a business that should be committed to delivering value, not proving this person wrong.
Gradually distance yourself from these negative people. Surround yourself with those who are like-minded and are going to the places in which you envision yourself being.

Related: Stop Spending Time With Toxic People
Authentic friends will support your goals and help you move forward. If you see people around you not showing support -- acknowledge it and move on with your life. With the positivity you bring, the right people will cross your path.

Dig deep. Explain to your family that if you don't pursue this entrepreneurial vision, you are going to live with regret. This is a feeling everyone can relate to.
Your family will expect you to give up after a specific time if you are not obtaining the results they might expect. You will be questioned in the most indirect way to see if you are still working on the venture you discussed.
This process will test your ability to handle your emotions on all levels; seek your inner voice and your true intention for committing to entrepreneurship.
For them, it will be easy to pinpoint your failures. You will be criticized, laughed at, be compared to. Your official 'moment of truth' will not be between anyone but yourself. This is an opportunity to dig deep and get to the core of the vision you have for your life and your business.
This pivotal moment will help define your energy and desire to succeed. Do not sit and wallow. Take action and make it happen. Don't wait to become worthy of your dreams.
The world is awaiting your gift -- all you have to do is show up with the right intention!

Sharing is Caring.....

QUOTES....

“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”
― Elie Wiesel

“Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.”
― Charlotte Brontë

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”
― Mother Teresa

“A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.”
― Jack London

“It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else.”
― Erma Bombeck

“Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.”
― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

“Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community.”
― Adelaide Hoodless

“This life is for loving, sharing, learning, smiling, caring, forgiving, laughing, hugging, helping, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more loving. I choose to live life this way. I want to live my life in such a way that when I get out of bed in the morning, the devil says, 'aw shit, he's up!”
― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

“It ain't no fun if the homies can't have none. ”
― Snoop Dogg

“Hey, Ethan."
"Yeah?"
"Remember the Twinkie on the bus? The one I gave you in second grade, the day we met?"
"The one you found on the floor and gave me without telling me? Nice."
He grinned and shot the ball. "It never really fell on the floor. I made that part up.”
― Kami Garcia, Beautiful Chaos

“Love only grows by sharing. You can only have more for yourself by giving it away to others.”
― Brian Tracy

“The single greatest lesson the garden teaches is that our relationship to the planet need not be zero-sum, and that as long as the sun still shines and people still can plan and plant, think and do, we can, if we bother to try, find ways to provide for ourselves without diminishing the world. ”
― Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.”
― Ruth Reichl

“I know what I have given you...
I do not know what you have received.”
― Antonio Porchia

“Don’t be jealous if I spend 50% of my time with you, and 50% of my time with others, because you get 100% of 50%, while all the others have to share that other 50%.” This is the speech I’ve prepared to tell my wife in the future, when I’m spending a majority minus one percent of my time with my clones. 
”
― Jarod Kintz, This Book Has No Title

“Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.”
― Dalai Lama XIV

“You are forgiven for your happiness and your successes only if you generously consent to share them.”
― Albert Camus

“To do good is noble. To tell others to do good is even nobler and much less trouble.”
― Mark Twain

“The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It's not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.”
― Carlos Barrios, Mayan elder and Ajq'ij of the Eagle Clan

“I don’t like to share my personal life… it wouldn’t be personal if I shared it.”
― George Clooney

“And a new philosophy emerged called quantum physics, which suggest that the individual’s function is to inform and be informed. You really exist only when you’re in a field sharing and exchanging information. You create the realities you inhabit.”
― Timothy Leary, Chaos & Cyber Culture

“Even though friends say they are interested in your life, they never really want to talk about you as much as you want them to. (68)”
― Charise Mericle Harper, Flashcards of My Life

“If you have a candle, the light won't glow any dimmer if I light yours off of mine.”
― Steven Tyler

“Because I was more often happy for other people, I got to spend more time being happy. And as I saw more light in everybody else, I seemed to have more myself. (250)”
― Victoria Moran, Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty

“Often we come home from a sharing session with a feeling that something precious has been taken away from us or that holy ground has been trodden upon.”
― Henri J.M. Nouwen

“When someone steals another's clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”
― Basil the Great

“Yes. We both have a bad feeling. Tonight we shall take our bad feelings and share them, and face them. We shall mourn. We shall drain the bitter dregs of mortality. Pain shared, my brother, is pain not doubled, but halved. No man is an island.”
― Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys

“You can share in my joy, but I don’t want to share my misery. No, I want to give away my misery. Go ahead, take it all.
”
― Jarod Kintz, 99 Cents For Some Nonsense

“I enjoy sharing my books as I do my friends, asking only that you treat them well and see them safely home.”
― Ernest Morgan

“A brick could be divided into four equal pieces and split among three friends. I’ll take the two largest pieces, or half, whichever makes me appear the most generous.
”
― Jarod Kintz, Brick and Blanket

How to reward yourself by giving time and money to others this season....

From fancy cars and expensive clothes to fine dining and exotic vacations, there are many ways you can spend your hard-earned dollars. And there is nothing wrong with rewarding yourself for a job well done -- but what would happen if you rewarded someone else instead?
A recent study by Harvard Business School faculty and graduate students titled “Feeling Good about Giving: The Benefits (and Costs) of Self-Interested Charitable Behavior," explores the ways in which charitable behavior can lead to benefits for the giver. While the the concept that giving to others can make you feel good about yourself is not revolutionary, there are several more subtle ways that giving your money or time for a cause can benefit your psychological, spiritual and emotional well-being.

Here are five reasons to donate to charity.......
based on the research of the Harvard Business School as well as other experts and websites.

Donations are tax deductible

When you donate to a charitable organization or a non-profit group, the amount you donate is tax deductible. But not only is the money you give tax deductible, so are the amounts you spend on travel, parking costs and even convention and event fees that are related to the non-profit group, as long as you are not being reimbursed by the charity for these expenses.
 

Giving to charity may improve your sense of well-being

 The act of helping others can create an improved sense of well-being. Knowing that you sacrificed something such as time, finances or property in order to help others in need can give you a sense of purpose in life or work and inner satisfaction.

Supporting a cause can help keep you informed about issues of social injustice

When considering donating to a charity, many people tend to research the issues connected to that organization. As a result, you become more educated about social injustices around the world. You may discover new points of view and opinions on topics about which you were previously uniformed. This knowledge may position you to help increase the awareness of social problems among those in your sphere of influence from a balanced and educated standpoint.

Giving to charity out of spiritual conviction can strengthen your spiritual life

Selfless giving is a key component to many spiritual and religious belief systems. Recognizing that you have taken action in line with your spiritual beliefs by offering your resources to others in need can bring a sense of inner peace and contentment.

Volunteering with a charity may result in physical and social benefits

After donating financially to a charity or non-profit organization, you may feel an inner pull to become more involved with the cause by donating your time and skill as well. By volunteering, you have the opportunity to build your social circles while reaping the physical, mental and spiritual benefits from the labor you contribute to your favorite cause.