There are tons of people who will tell you ‘I am not sure if you will be able to do that’. Before saying this, they will look at you from head to toe, curl their lips, throws their eyeballs to the ceiling for a few seconds and pretend to give your capability a shot. Let such people not bother you. However, at the same time, you don’t even need to take that kind of crap!
Take them on the knife point with these witty comebacks
“Oh yeah….tell me why?”
When you throw this question at them, you will leave most of these people tongue tied. The fact that we never counter their underestimation towards us gives them the power to keep underestimating us. In case anyone ends up giving you reasons, be patient and open enough to listen to them. After they finish, conclude your conversation with “I appreciate your honest views. I will make sure you change them” and decorate this with a smile.
“I respect your thoughts, but I’d rather have my outcomes speak for me than my word”
Seriously! We know people just have a habit of pointing out fingers and crushing someone’s confidence. Such people love to underestimate people. It is with people like these that you have to believe in yourself the most. If you feel you can accomplish a particular task others don’t believe you can; prove them wrong. Proving someone wrong is the hardest slap you can give. Focus on your weaknesses, rectify your errors, take extra efforts than you usually do and prove all the “you can’t do it”s wrong.
“Remember the time when I asked for your opinion? Because I clearly don’t”
If there is someone who belongs to the same strata as you; this could be your peer, someone from your friend circle, your colleague from work, or even someone lower to you in the hierarchy, and is underestimating you, please don’t allow them to ramble. Shush them. Just say the above sentence and you will be good.
“I disagree. I know I can”
There will be a lot of others who will just be jealous of you, and we always know who is jealous of us. So don’t think before you speak up for yourself nor be afraid. Just straight away tell them that you do not agree and that you are confident you will do it efficiently(whatever that may be). Make sure you say this as sweetly and calmly as possible and have fun watching them turn to ashes.
Simply smile
When someone underestimates you saying something, you can even just simply smile and walk away, but do react.
Sometimes the people who underestimate you might genuinely not even be as good as you. There are going to be nth number of people who are going to underestimate you and come and tell you that you are not capable of doing a particular thing even after you will be willing to do it. My advice to you is that in spite of people telling you can’t, go ahead and do it. The reason for this is that trying out will never do any harm. Never let anyone else decide your worth and capabilities but you.
