Oftentimes in life (and in business) we’re faced with a situation where we’re just not sure how things are supposed to go. Either we’ve never experienced these particular circumstances before or our understanding of them is so limited that we’re in no position to offer a strong position.
It’s at this point that we’re faced with a choice: do we reveal our ignorance of the situation at hand or do we simply share our opinion and try to pass it off as fact.
All too often we’re afraid of appearing uninformed, and we choose to voice our opinion so as to not lose credibility. We all want to be seen as an expert in our field. The problem with this approach is that nowadays, anyone with a smart phone is capable of fact checking you in a matter of moments, and losing face over a made up fact is much worse than showing that we’re human and admitting that we don’t know everything.
People respond much better to honesty (I’m not sure of the answer, but I’m going to find out for you) than they do to deception.
Because once we lose someone’s trust, it’s a difficult thing to get back again.
It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.
Maurice Switzer
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