Dear Venture Capitalist,

You have complained that the public ratings are gamed or manipulated or vengeful or inaccurate. You may be right or you may be wrong. You have certainly called me a few times asking for a public review…

Your personal rating was just revealed publicly for the first time yesterday. The only people who have rated you are people that know you, since there is no incentive for users to secretly bash or compliment your performance when nobody was looking. You can actually see if you are any good at what you do.

Your ego may be bruised, but you are not going to get 20 reviews. You probably worked with 20 CEOs in your entire career. You’ll be lucky to get 5 reviews, and they are going to be honest. Guess what, if you score below a three, you should be concerned. The mediocre button for partners is number three out of five. So, even if you score a three, this means that people think you are… mediocre.

My guess is that the wheels of manipulation are already starting to turn, as you are asking “who can I call to rate me?” I am going to recommend that you take the feedback to improve your performance, rather than manipulate the outcome to look better. Being better is actually better than looking better. If you are scoring below a two, you’re not doing your job well and the people that you work with probably do not like you, either.

You can improve. Here is your chance. Run with it.