Last night my husband and I decided to watch something on Netflix. I quickly cleared all the toys from the living room. Then I went to the kitchen to get some mango sorbet for the movie.
While I was scooping out the sorbet, he asked me what I wanted to watch. As usual, we could never decide. I love mystery, suspense, and action movies. However, I will not watch it if it is not 4 stars. That has always been my rule when I sit down to watch a movie.
But since we were watching something together, my rule did not apply, unfortunately.
He blurted out some movie name and said, “But it’s 3 stars. It could be good.”
I asked, “What does Rotten Tomatoes rate it at?”
He said, “I don’t know, but it’s 3 stars here, so let’s see what happens.”
I rolled my eyes to express my dissatisfaction.
On occasions where he has forced me to watch less rated movies, they were mostly bad. I couldn’t recognize any of the actors. This part is important. When I recognize someone, I like to do a quick Google search. I do this to see what is going on with them. Anyone else do that?
But the ones that were good were really good.
How often do we let a “rating” decide what we are willing to try? I do it all the time. Even when we go out to eat. The one thing I do not like though, is that ratings do not tell the full story. They never have.
When I first started out there were a lot of awkward beginnings. Things that happened that I couldn’t have prepared for. It was a learning curve. Sometimes it’s unfair for us to get dinged for something we had no control over. A bad review oftentimes doesn’t mean that we are not good enough. We should never believe that those numbers represent us. Sometimes it’s because we got involved with the wrong people. Not because our work lacks value. The wrong partner. The wrong vendor. The wrong collaborator.
When we choose people who believe in our vision and want to see us win, everything changes. The good news is that it’s a new year to get it right. To look and see who is influencing our direction.
I recognize that a low rating does not define an actor’s talent or potential. Nor should a bad review define ours as solo professionals. Besides, how legit is Rotten Tomatoes anyway? I’ve seen some high rated movies that were just awful.
Final Thoughts
So this year, let’s not let anyone else’s unfair review write our story. If one happens to show up, ask yourself if it reflects your work. Let’s not focus on the number, but on ways that we can continuously improve to meet satisfaction.
Chuckle of the day! 😂
Rotten Tomatoes is the only place where a tomato can really hurt your feelings.
Shamayne Brown is a virtual assistant and the founder of Camp Virtual Assistance.
She works with solo professionals and small business owners who are ready to invest in their business and need the support that she offers.
She specializes in creating email newsletters as well as other admin and creative design tasks.
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