I didn’t expect to find such wisdom in a clip from a daytime talk show, much less one that was discussing the Cleveland Brown’s quarterback. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, but I’ll save it for another day and just give credit to Marcellus Wiley for the inspiration.

“Criticism is the cost of praise.”

I’ll go one step further and argue that criticism is the cost of:

Popularity
Wisdom
Winning
Creativity
Openness
Morality
Honesty

When one succeeds, when one takes the road less traveled or is loyal to themself, criticism will likely follow.

Why?

Criticism is cheap – and all these things are expensive.

Anyone can be a critic. It requires little to no effort.

Few, if any, are held accountable for their criticism.

It’s the cheap, readily available currency used to try to buy some of the “good” that others have earned through effort.