The World of Grandpa Don

Never Wrong

One of my favorite sayings has been, "I'm not always right, but ... I'm never wrong". It was said, tongue in cheek but never the less, it sends the wrong message. 

This same attitude was brought to mind recently in the Gospel story of the Crucifixion when the temple priests objected to "King of the Jews" being displayed on the cross. Pilot's response, "What I have written, I have written". To change it would mean admission of a mistake. Also in the Bible, in the story of Esther, her people were condemned unjustly and their death was mandated under the seal of the king. When he was convinced it was an unjust act, the king could not revoke the order because it would be an admission of error, so he issued a new order giving them permission to defend themselves.

More recently, in the China spy plane incident, the Chinese government immediately and prior to any investigation proclaimed that it "was not their fault". This attitude seems to be built into the Eastern culture but it in not limited to those governments and people.

How often have we found people refusing to admit their faults and failures. It starts with childhood and unfortunately we find parents who , not only do not try to correct the problem, but immediately and without investigation proclaim the child's innocence. This reinforces the child's attitude that he can do anything and get away with it just by denial of fault. We carry this attitude into adulthood with results that go from minor injustices to criminal acts.

When I started to work for Harold Roberts early in my career, he said, "Don, when you make a mistake, the first thing you do is tell me. Then, if it will effect the customer, we tell him of the error and what is being done to correct it." Harold noted that when admit your error, before it is found out by others, people will help to solve the problem. People seldom condemn for honest mistakes but they will not tolerate deliberate deception. Even an honest mistake will be taken for deliberate deception if is hidden and then discovered.

Abe Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people, some of the time, ... But you can not fool all the people, all the time".

I hope my new favorite saying will be, 
"I'm not always right, ... and when I'm wrong, let me know".

4/21/01