"We didn't make it for you!"

At the world premiere of the classic film, “Fight Club”, the audience was… silent.

It turns out, the cast members were the only ones who enjoyed the film. While the film’s stars Brad Pitt & Edward Norton laughed, the rest of the spectators sat silently.

After the screening, one woman from the audience caught director David Fincher’s eye and told him how irresponsible and disgusting the film was.

This may seem surprising now considering how much people love Fight Club, but it makes sense when you learn that the average age of the audience at the premiere was 73.

When taking the audience’s age into account, Fincher immediately recalled a Tim Curry line from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”:

“We didn’t make it for you!” 

Fincher realized his target audience wasn’t a group of 70-year-old women, so he couldn’t take their feedback to heart.

It didn’t matter if his film was perfect; they would have never enjoyed it.

If you know exactly who your audience is, and you’ve done your best in their eyes, forget the rest. You’ve succeeded.

You can’t make a movie that appeals to everyone.

Likewise, you can’t live authentically and be liked by everyone you meet. This doesn’t mean you go around picking fights with anyone you disagree with, but it does mean not going along with conversations or plans that contradict who you are.

Civil Rights activists were hated by a large portion of the country! Despite that, they managed to make significant change occur by standing up for what they believed in. And while their mission superseded laws or common practices in some instances, it did call for physical harm or dehumanizing their opponents.

Ultimately, you have to learn who it is you are. What are your beliefs? How do you want to live? What can you tolerate? What can’t you tolerate?

Once you answer these questions, look for the people who embody these traits and abilities you strive for. When you find yourself making important decisions, don’t think about how “others” will view you — think about how your people will view you.

Would your people be proud of what you’re about to do?

If so, then good! It doesn’t matter what everyone else outside of that group thinks about what you’re doing and the decisions you’re making.

And if you ever get any pushback for the decisions you make, answer the way Fincher did at the premiere: “[I] didn’t make this for you!”