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When you're wrong, admit it and apologize.
That's a novel idea.
That's what our parents, teachers, and others tell us to do, right?
When I first started my job in finance, I worked for a guy named John.
One day, I was on the computer and I was just fiddling around.
And then, I looked, and I saw a shared subdirectory, and it said “John.”
I clicked on that subdirectory and it said, “More details.”
Eventually, I saw his résumé, or his CV and I decided to open it.
I went through it.
No big thing!
I felt like I wasn’t doing anything wrong.
I was just poking around on the internal Internet at the company.
A couple of hours later ─ maybe an hour later ─ I went to the office of John where
he was at a trading desk ─ many people at the desk.
He was sitting there, and we were just talking.
I was standing in front of him.
I really admired him, and I really appreciated the job that I had.
I loved it.
And John looked at his computer and he said, “My God!
What's this?
Hey, something is showing on my computer.
The most recently opened document is my résumé, my CV.”
Have you ever had that feeling when you're caught and sweat just starts to come out?
He said, “I wonder who did that.”
And I stood there.
Basically, I looked at him and I said, “I did that.
I'm sorry.
I was just fiddling around on the computer.
I saw it and I opened it.
I'm sorry about that.”
He said, “No problem.”
Problem solved!
The main thing I learned from it was when you do something wrong, admit it and move
on from it.
Where we get so many problems in our lives is when we just keep building up things that
we do wrong; we never admit it and we never apologize for what we do.
So clear away the wreckage of your past by apologizing for what you do wrong.
The most remarkable thing about that story and that relationship is that happened in
1994.
Today is 2018 and John and I are dearest of friends.
I didn't lose a friendship.
I gained a friendship.
I gained respect and I gained trust.
And I suggest that you do the same.