From wonderful haircuts to challenging debates – it’s been a glorious Friday!
I am totally pumped with how great Friday has been. I have met with incredible clients, got a fabulous Army Crew Cut, met with a great client for a very late lunch and had the funniest phone call after hours.
Thinking back over my business journey, I remember one very interesting character who I just never gelled with. They would always debate me, say something negative and they were never a popular figure at all. In those days, I had trouble handling them and they would always get the last word in on a conversation.
Of course, it bruised my delicate, sensitive and fragile ego with me forgetting about it and moving on in life.
As the years passed, I worked heavily on self-development and part of that was learning how to debate, stand my ground, defend others and develop a strong sense of support.
I was thinking over the past few weeks that I need some debating practice. Jesus must have heard me say that and BOOM! I get an email from this wonderful person who trumped me some years back.
It started off as a normal conversation in giving them the benefit of the doubt and then the original behaviour started coming to the surface. Challenging me, saying negative stuff and the like. I could have just said “we aren’t a good fit and goodbye” (which I have many times before), but my insecure bruised ego needed redemption and I knew this was the chance.
They eventually called me and I still gave the benefit of the doubt and then BOOM; the challenging came and it was game on. hey argued with everything I said and I hit them back without missing a beat applying everything I have learned about debating with the epic win coming when they said “They are tired from the discussion” (yes!).
This is how I won the debate which took about 25 to 30 minutes:
– Kept my energy up.
– Stayed happy.
– Didn’t let their insults impact me.
– If there was a crack in their argument I took it.
– Countered insults with key questions.
– Used their own previous arguments against them.
It was a great round and as it came towards the end it was a cathartic release of joy, fun and relief in knowing my debating skills have kicked butt over the past few years.
I have helped teach people great debating skills as well and it’s a wonderful skill to have! With respect to my wonderful opponent too (who I commend for a tough performance), they even complimented my ability to argue which just rocked.
My advice and thinking? Learning how to debate is core skill for many of us entrepreneurs. Be it you must debate a staff member, a client when they are not in the right, the government when you need something or making the world a better place; debating is a core skill that is critical.
I never learned this in my youth (which I understand many do these days) and I wish I did!
Make sure you believe in what you do, know your topic, debate strong and of course if you ARE WRONG THEN CONCEDE! Only dummies keep debating when they are wrong and I am the first to surrender if I am in the weak.
However, if I you are the strong don’t stop. Pound your opposition hard and love the journey.
Thank you for the read, love your work and stay awesome!
P.S. Thank you to my opponent from years back, love your work and thanks for the call.
No responses yet