I just had a nightmare in which I was nearly killed by people physically and violently attacked my place of business- throwing rocks through windows, glass embedded in myself and the children (we work with kids), property looted.
The scary thing is that I'm close to some people who seem to feel that anyone who makes money is exploiting the poor. I'm not a perfect business owner by any stretch of the imagination, but I do my best to be transparent and treat my employees well while still maintaining significant profitability in a very high overhead line of business. I see them hating on companies they don't even know about, just because they're big companies. Think Baltimore riots-- where so many businesses who had the utmost respect for the cause, but were looted and demonized anyway.
And it terrifies me to think that someone who is otherwise a decent human being could feel that way about me-- could see my success as not something to celebrate but something to annihilate.
I know that it's irrational to attack success for the sake of attacking success, but it's fucking scary to think that if the wrong person noticed my success, I might actually be physically assaulted for it. Mind you, I haven't even broken 6 figures in cash yet.
Has anyone dealt with feelings like this before? This is definitely the most stressful time of year for me, so I'm sure that I'll feel less overwhelmed by it in the future, but I'm wondering what you guys have been through.