I wrote a few paragraphs “about me” last week. After I finished writing what I thought was the best edit I could make to the written content, I sent it to a few friends.

Few friends had some suggestions for changes I should make. I agreed to the changes that were suggested and hit the publish button again. Everyone was happy with the changes until Mayur had a look at the content. Mayur writes advertisement campaigns as part of his job and is good at writing.

Mayur broke every sentence down. He told me why he disagreed with the words I had chosen and with my sentence formation. It was great feedback. I thought I was good at writing, but his feedback made me realise I still had a long, long way to go. As much as I was cringing as he took me on the journey of “you need to re-write everything, " I agreed with all his feedback after the call as I reread the paragraphs.

I rewrote everything I had written before. I took a screenshot of the content before and after. The content written before did not read as well as the content later. I was happy to receive honest feedback.

I have been thinking about this a whole lot since yesterday. Mayur was happy to share the brutal feedback with me cause of the relationship and equation we share. I was pleased that he did not hold back.

When asked for feedback, I have held back at giving honest feedback to people I have a good equation with. I chose to be nice and always said good things. This experience made me realise I should not. Maybe the feedback helps them improve. I do want the best for them, and that’s where the feedback is coming from.