His Point of View

I must be a genius or people think I am a bit slow, because there are too many people who think that they can pull a fast one on me for some reason.  The way I see it people who try to pull one over on others or tell lies have to believe in their mind that they are smarter than the person they are trying to take advantage of.  I have to take a quote from the late rap artist Pimp C “Aye man I just look like this man, know what I’m talkin’ bout. I ain’t get this far bein’ no square man.“  I most certainly did not get this far by being no square mane.   I stay sharp.

I used to find pleasure in crushing those who attempted to take advantage of me, but at this point I have crushed so many people that it is no longer entertaining and frankly its getting old.  When will people learn to listen when I tell them that I respect honesty no matter if I like the news they bring. Just tell the whole truth the first time and we can work out the details on the other side.  My father always told me when I was growing up that if I did something wrong I needed to tell him immediately.  If I came forward with all the information, up front  I would not be punished.  He used to say that he would never punish me (unless you call a lengthy and stern lecture punishment) for telling him the Whole truth, on my own.  But…if he found out on his own (or via someone else) that I had done something wrong (before I told him about it)  my punishment would be severe, and I do mean severe.  I think this was one of the more valuable principles my father taught me, and I have incorporated this way of thinking into my life as an adult.  As adults I find that fewer people tell flat lies these days, but what happens is they omit important details with the expectation that the person they are talking to will never find out the whole story.  I am here to tell you that I make a point of finding out all the details, and in most cases the details are quite obvious to anyone who takes two minutes to think about the situation.  Watching an adult back peddle when they realize that they are not dealing with a dummy is a sad thing to witness.  If they had not lied to me I would probably feel sorry for them, but I have no pity for those tho attempt to outsmart me, unless we are playing chess (or some other game that requires strategy).  Outside of playing games I take challenges to my intelligence quite seriously.

I am a very understanding person and I will go the extra mile to work out problems with people who I feel are being genuine and who seem to honestly want to find a mutually beneficial resolution.  Its those folks who think they can tell a half truth, or a flat lie who I used to enjoy watching as their world crumbled around them.  I used to like making people miserable when they didn’t know that I already had the details that they thought they were hiding from me.  At this point in my life I really wish people would be above board because I want to trust that people will do the right thing, unfortunately they continue to fail in this department.

I do realize that its human nature to want to take cover one’s own ass, and I can’t blame people for attempting to do that, except for the fact that most folks who deal with me have seen me go the extra mile for others, and i would do the same for anyone in my circles who is not trying to lie to me or trying get ahead by standing on my shoulders without my permission.  Why be deceitful toward someone who could and probably would help you if you simply told the truth?  I will admit that people say I tend to be a bit hard on folks when they make a “mistake”, but that’s because I expect that people in their 30′s, 40′s 50′s should know certain things about life by now.  We should have made changes in the way we handle personal and business decisions based on the mistakes we have made or witnessed in the past.  I do tend to come down hard on folks over 25 who are making decisions as if they have not learned anything since age 19.  If you are in the big leagues you need to act like it.  But in the end I will do all I can to bring them up to speed as long as they show that they want to improve.  I don’t yell or call people names, I am not verbally abusive, but people are so accustomed to being told how great they are (even when they are not completely correct) that they break down when someone tells them the truth about how wrong they really are.

Personal accountability is huge with me.  If you did something wrong just admit it, and if it happened by accident apologize.  If you did it on purpose, but then realized you made a bad choice don’t apologize, just say you made a bad choice.  There is a difference (in my book) apologies are for things that happened by accident, apologies are not for things we decide to do that turned out wrong.  Don’t apologize for your decisions, apologize when you failed to decide and things went awry.

Excuses don’t get far with me either.  If you did it, you did it.  Don’t blame it on your dog, your medication, the alcohol or anything other than your poor decision choices, or a lack of information required to make a fully informed decision.  The way I see it either you had adequate information and you made a choice, or you had incomplete information and you had to make a best guess.  Other than those two cases pretty much everything else is an attempt to deflect the blame onto someone or something else.  When people refuse to accept the fact that they are ultimately responsible for the choices they make, it is not possible to believe their so called apology.

I need to go take a nap (but I can’t) before I go ruin someone else’s day… I wish I could say this was still fun for me.  Maybe I’ll do it tomorrow, I might enjoy it then…hopefully.