Are You Strong Enough to Be Wrong?

Most people find it hard to say, “I am wrong.”

Can you say it? When faced with facts that show you are mistaken, can you admit you are wrong and change your position?

If you cannot admit you are wrong, you ruin your life. Examples:

“He won’t admit I’m right so I’m never speaking to him again.”

“There is nothing you can say or do to convince me there is anything wrong with eating Big Macs and fries every day.”

“I stopped being a lawyer as a protest because a judge was completely wrong.”

When leaders refuse to admit when they are wrong, we get waste, destruction and death.

For example, for hundreds of years, churches, houses and barns were burned to the ground after being hit by lightning. Everyone agreed it was God’s will and only sinners’ homes were set on fire. When a good person’s house was burned down, it was the Devil’s work.

In 1752, Benjamin Franklin invented the lightning rod. The surge of electricity from lightning would hit the metal rod on the roof of the building and go down a wire into the ground. The electricity would not burn the building.

Yet despite proof, religious leaders would not admit they were wrong and instead, accused Franklin of interfering with God’s work. It took 20 years (30 in Germany) and thousands of destroyed churches before a new generation of church leaders would install lightning rods on their churches.

Everyone wants to be right. For many people, nothing is worse than being wrong. They maintain their “rightness” despite all reasons they are mistaken. “Until my dying day, I will never admit I am wrong about this!”

However, admitting you are wrong, when you are wrong, is an essential step to your success.

“Truth is built by those who have the breadth and balance to see also where they’re wrong.” — L. Ron Hubbard from A New Slant on Life (Breadth = tolerance; broad mindedness) (Balance = mental stability; sanity)

Can you be wrong? Can you handle the truth? Wouldn’t you rather be correct?

Five Tips for Your Success

1. To succeed, face the fact that you are sometimes wrong. Get rid of any ideas that you must always be right about everything.

2. Show you are more interested in being correct than “right.” Be proud when you discover you are wrong. You are learning from experience and expanding your knowledge.

3. When you make a mistake or are wrong about something, be the first to admit it. Do it quickly and take a new, more accurate position. You are no longer wrong after you change your mind about an incorrect idea.

4. If people try to correct you, do not assume they are trying to make you wrong. Instead, give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they have good intentions. Join them in correcting your facts.

5. Replace your purpose of being right with more constructive purposes: helping people, increasing your knowledge, improving your job skills, earning more money, creating a valuable company and so on.

You succeed when you are willing to be wrong. You can then find the truth and be correct.

Go ahead. Be wrong about something!