Tim Ferriss, author of the The Four Hour Work Week , writing on his blog of the same name, wrote a short post on the benefits of p***ing people off.

He quotes a Fortune Magazine profile from July 2009 about leading professional baseball agent Scot Boras:

“He said that if you are really effective at what you do, 95% of the things said about you will be negative. Keep your head on straight, don’t get emotional, take the heat, and just make sure your clients are smiling.”

As an professional interim manager and consultant, I spend a lot of time helping clients in difficult situations and consequently, many of the solutions or recommendations are initially unpopular. To me, doing the right thing is about personal satisfaction and making a difference.

Clearly the goal is not to p*** people off, but your aim should be to do work which makes a difference – or why bother?

To quote Tim:

“By facing the fire early and often, we ensure the confidence and breathing room later to do bigger and better things.”

You can read more of Tim’s musings on his blog or his excellent book about lifestyle design and how you can use lifestyle design to work less and do the things you want to do: