As a professional blogger for nearly two years now, I’ve seen tens of thousands of comments aimed at me. Most of them are favorable, a lot of them are entertaining, some of them are negative, and a handful of them are just nasty. It comes with the territory when you publish your opinions, passions, and stories freely to the web.

But nasty commenters have a bright side. They help motivate me to work harder and make it so my output has to do the convincing. They give me thick skin and chutzpah to take risks as both a writer and businessman.

At first, nasty commenters got me all riled up — impassioned if you will. Though they are all baseless, unfair, or unthinkably biased, I have to admit my inflammatory prose can encourage them from time to time. Still, a nasty commenter is just another day in the office now. I stopped wincing at them long ago unless the non-nasty commenters rightfully correct me first. It’s an empowering feeling.

So whether it’s unbelieving commenters, friends, colleagues, or even family members, leverage your critics and naysayers to your professional advantage. If talk really is cheap, then we live in an impoverished world.

Let your results do the talking while the cynics stay strapped.