Yes, it bothers me from time to time. The upside is that it gives me an opportunity to practice detachment, a very valuable practice that enriches my life greatly. I recognize that it's their problem, not mine.

Joe Vitale has an interesting comment about this on his site mrfire.com:

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"I would be very grateful if sometime you could address this topic - what do you do about rude and hostile emails?"

She went on to explain that...

"I find that a customer will be very friendly for a long, long time, then suddenly not like an email and they just turn on me - it's a woman thing, I guess - they are very emotional - but incredibly rude, and it really stings me as well as the other writers I know."

She wanted to know if I got nasty emails and, if so, how does Joe Vitale handle it?

Quick answer: Everyone gets "flamed" at some point or another. Email seems to invite it. It's very safe for people to sit behind their computers and fire off things they would never say to someone's face.

So yes, I get nasty emails from time to time. Some of them send chills up my spine.

Sigh.

No, I don't like it.

But I learned a few things a long time ago:

1. You can't please everybody. And in fact, if you aren't offending somebody at some point, then you're probably playing it safe and not being yourself.

2. If you respond to someone's ugly email, you'll get into a pen-pal relationship of hate. You'll never convince them of your stance. It's best to delete the message and forget it.

3. It's more important to be a creator, than a complainer. Truth is, complaining is easy. A cheap way to establish yourself as an expert in any field is to start criticizing all the current experts in that field. You'll create the illusion that you know something. But the reality is, the real experts are the creators of the world.

Be a creator.

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I agree 100% with Joe's position, but I do have one comment about this response ... I can almost always identify the sender of an email and I have never had a vicious email from a woman. They've without exception been from men. There have been a few whose sex I couldn't identify, and it's possible there were some women in that group. Still, it's an interesting observation.

And by the way, doesn't the guy in this picture look silly? What a WASTE of energy!