Offending Someone?

If you're afraid of offending others, then I'm sorry—you'll eventually find that by trying so hard not to offend anyone, you end up offending yourself.

Most people fall into two extremes.

One extreme is being completely lazy—slacking off even on important work and offending the very people who could shape their destiny.

The other extreme is being afraid of offending everyone and terrified of making any mistake, resulting in productivity so low it's hard to imagine. You keep working in the most careless, mindless, and inefficient way possible.

The key question is whether you do regular reviews. If you don't, then your so-called twenty years of work experience is just repeating the first year twenty times over.

Those who know how will continuously refine their approach, gradually and more efficiently identifying that 5% of people who truly matter to their destiny. There's no need to waste emotional energy on the remaining 95% who are irrelevant, or squander effort on meaningless social obligations.

What are these 95% like? First, they have no impact on your life. Second, they won't support you anyway—when you succeed, they envy you; when you fail, they look down on you. So what's the greatest value such a group can bring you in terms of personal interests? They become tools you can use—doesn't that make sense? In this way, even those you can't rely on become your driving force and your source of accountability.

Doesn't that sound right? So why be afraid of offending people?