About the Episode:
Let’s be real—nobody likes a complainer, and yet we’ve all been one. In this episode, I call it out. Hard. Why? Complaining gives us a fake sense of doing something when we’re actually doing nothing. It’s emotional laziness. You get a little hit of dopamine, a little ego boost, and feel like you’ve made a difference—but you haven’t.
Today, I break down why complaining is a cultural epidemic and how to kill it in yourself and in your circle. Whether it’s your job, your relationship, your kids, or even the way your steak came out at dinner—stop whining and start presenting solutions. Leadership means responsibility, not reaction. It’s time to grow up, speak up, and step up. If something sucks, be the one who fixes it. That’s how you build teams, win in business, and actually move your life forward.
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Watch the episode here:
Episode Topics:
- Rick breaks down why complaining is an ego trip—not a solution.
- You’ll learn how to redirect negativity into power and action.
- You’ll stop sabotaging yourself with venting that leads nowhere.
- This episode will help you become a more effective leader at work and at home.
- It’s your call to level up from victimhood to problem-solver.
What’s shaking? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in, all right, this one’s gonna be fun today. And I don’t know, this may be super fast, well, might even drag out. I don’t know. I don’t mean drag out, but I mean, like, go for a while, because I might get super excited on you, because today, we’re going to talk about complainers. How many of you love complainers? I’m sure everybody is shaking their heads right now, because nobody likes a complainer. And at the same time, I’m also going to challenge you, because every single one of us, including me, talking to you today, if you look in the mirror, it’s like every single one of us has been a complainer at some point in our lives about something, right? And that’s just because we lose emotional awareness in the moments, because it just feels good to, like, vent out something. But here’s the thing about complaining, complaining allows you to actually, this is so interesting, right? Listen to what I’m about to say, because it, you know, I’m actually like, seeing the words in my head before I’m gonna speak them out, and I start to smile, and I’m like, This is so cool. How am I gonna tell this to you? Complaining allows you to feel like you’re doing something for real.
It’s almost like an immediate rush, right? It’s like taking a hit of cocaine in a moment that sucks to where you feel like you were wronged or something’s going bad, you know, and it allows you to deflect, maybe project, and complaining is like that quick hit of dopamine to where you’re like, hey, that kind of felt good. I just did something right? Or, if it’s something around it, think of it like a restaurant, right? Have you ever had your food come out to you and it be cold or underprepared? Wrong? You know, if you’ve had a steak, I like my medium rare, and all of a sudden it becomes well done, you know? And it’s like, here’s the thing, is like, when I send it back, it’s like, I’m not just saying, Hey, your people suck. You know, this sent out here, I will always present a solution outside of that, because that’s actually doing something. Complaining. Actually does nothing. It does zero; it just allows you to give you that opportunity to feel better about yourself in the moment. Complaining is an ego trip for yourself, pure and simple, right? So you feel like you’re doing something, but you’re actually doing nothing at all. Right? Complaining, seriously, accomplishes nothing. But at the same time, it becomes like a it’s a cultural thing. Take a look at social right now. Okay, I had a post a little while back about ADHD. It was a lot of fun, you know.
And I was trying to talk about ADHD as being like, it’s a deficit, you know, because most people don’t have a lot of attention, and so many people are at those, like, look at all the drugs, look at all the studies. You know, there are a lot of people who do that. It’s like, Hey, I have an opinion. I’m not a doctor. And at the same time, when you look at the history of this, which maybe I’ll do an episode on this someday, when you do a history of that, it shows that a lot of people, when they’re under stimulated in life, especially boys, when they’re under stimulated, that’s when this condition sets on. So I’m not saying that the condition is invalid. I’m actually saying that the reasoning and the remedy behind it by pharmaceutical companies, doctors, medicine in general, I don’t think is treating the actual issue, because a lot of times, parents will abdicate the responsibility of raising their kids, and kids are just stuck in a place to where they are not challenged, they are not stimulating life, especially boys, especially boys, when you’re like, four to seven years old.
But what happened on that post is that so many people jumped on and just complained, that’s it, like your other saying, you know, not many, not many of those comments actually suggested a solution, right? It was just that you didn’t understand. You know, who are you? And all this other stuff, but this happens all over the place, especially on social media, and you can see that. And this negativity breeds more negativity. Complaining generates a snowball effect for more complaining. And there’s all these people that feel like they’re doing something when they’re actually doing nothing at all. It’s become a cultural thing. It’s like that freaking air that we breathe for real, right? So here’s what you need to do. Instead of complaining, you need to actually do something about it. So if that, if that steak comes prepared the wrong way, like, Hey, here’s what I would like. Can you? Can you one? Re, cook it, if that’s what you want, right? Rick, cook it in medium water. Ask the question, How long will that take? Right? And they tell you, it’s like, Okay, I think I’ll make a different decision. Then maybe I want a different dish. Or maybe I’m okay today, right? Maybe just take it off the bill and then move it away. Or if they say, Sure, I’ll remake it for it’s like, hey, you know what? I appreciate that for the inconvenience.
Could you maybe throw in a drink for me or dessert, right? You are presenting solutions to resolve the problem that are for your benefit. It’s a mutual agreement. You’re not going to get anything if you don’t ask, and I tell you what, you are certainly not going to get the service that you want. If all you do is just sit there and complain if you’ve got an issue with someone, some other person, right? And this is the thing I experience this so. Sometimes in my own company, and I always put this out, it’s like, if you’re going to provide feedback to anybody, upline, downline, peer to peer, whatever it is, if you’re going to provide feedback, then you need to also suggest a solution. By all means, I want you to be able to identify things, identify gaps, come up with better ways of doing things, call somebody out for maybe not showing up the way that they were supposed to today, but then also go a step beyond that and ask them, in that case, Hey, you okay, what’s going on? This is what I experienced of you today.
And in that process, you can say, Well, maybe you could try this. Or, you know what I’m really counting on, you could show up next time at the meeting, prepared? These are all things. You’re suggesting solutions. So you’re not complaining. You’re actually contributing to the solution and problem-solving. You are helping that other individual solve their problem, because otherwise they’re just going to sit there, and you can generate the state. It’s like victimhood starts to replicate itself. First, something happened to you, so you’re playing the victim by complaining, but then you’re complaining to them, and they feel like the victim because you’re just complaining about them. That’s it. You’re just bitching and just saying, I don’t like what you’re doing, or whatever it is. And now all of a sudden they feel like the victim because this person came and attacked me. They didn’t approach me, right? All that stupid BS that happens in corporations and in business for with employees and entrepreneurs and everybody else experiences this, because people just fire shots back and forth without ever contributing to the solution. It’s stupid. That’s not something I tolerate in my company. And you know what, if you’re in a relationship, that’s not something you should tolerate in your relationship, either, spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, whatever you want to call them, you shouldn’t tolerate that in their relationship. If there’s something that they have a problem with, and it could be legitimate, it absolutely could be legitimate.
So don’t step up and be like, I’m better than you. Or if they’re going to come to me and say anything negative about me, to me, it’s a problem, or you perceive it to be negative, if they can come to you with good intentions or reverse, if you can go to them with good intentions and say, You know what, I’ve noticed this. Maybe this, this. You can do it differently next time, in this way. Or you can say, Hey, I noticed this. What’s going on, and how can I help? Because you might not know how to contribute to the solution at that moment. That’s okay. That’s perfectly okay. But you are stating that you are willing to help. And right there is the starting point to try to collaboratively, collectively, come up with a solution, a path forward, a way to repair, a way to get the project done, a way to treat a customer, a way to build a new system. These are all things that you can do, because complaining is something that is never going to get things accomplished. All it is is an ego trip that makes you feel good in the moment. And I’m telling you, it’s stupid. You look stupid, you sound stupid, and you probably feel stupid after that dopamine hit goes away. So from this point on, never complain again. Challenge yourself to never complain again, and help contribute to the solution, not be part of the problem.