STOP WASTING YOUR BREATH AND TIME ON TRUMP
Every good entrepreneur knows the fear and
risks of going too far. There’s a fine line between not enough and too much and
there are far too many opportunities while you’re building a business to blow
it by being too reticent or too rambunctious. Whether it’s asking a prospect or
partner for the order or the deal too soon and overdoing it; pitching an
investor and pushing too hard or not hard enough to show how much you believe
in your idea and how badly you want to succeed; or trying to scale your startup
on a shaky foundation that’s not fit or full enough at the moment to fill the
bill.
As Hunter Thompson used to say: “There’s
no honest way to describe the edge because the only people who really know
where it is are the ones who have gone over.” But walking that thin line
between sadness and euphoria and always being just a step or two this side of
disaster is part of the thrill and challenge of being an entrepreneur. The most
critical trait that separates the winners and losers is knowing exactly when to
call it a day and stop doing whatever you’re doing because it’s taking you
nowhere worth going. When the path forward turns into a plank, it’s time to
pack your bags and do something better and smarter – not because you’re a
quitter or lack the required desire, but because some things are simply not
destined to happen just as some people will never see the light or be convinced
of the error of their ways and thinking.
The
one overwhelming lesson that the Orange Monster and craven con man we’re still sadly
stuck with has taught us all is that it’s so much easier to fool people than to
convince them that they’ve been fooled. This maniacal meddler never quits and unfortunately,
it’s very hard to resist reacting to, if not responding to, his daily outrages,
whines, provocations and crimes. But it’s a bad bet to take the bait and much
better for your business and your mental health to try to ignore his antics and
pray for the best. The truth is, however, that you can’t pray a lie and Trump
has been a lie from Day One in every possible way.
In
our day-to-day conversations with friends, families, and fellow workers, we’ve
all pretty much reached the point of no return with conversations about Trump. It
never pays to wrestle with a pig or his piglets – they enjoy it, and you
eventually end up worn out and filthy. Now’s the time for our own sakes to stop
wasting our breath, our precious time, and our energy on the world’s most
demonstrably worthless human being as well as in arguments and foolish
one-sided discussions with his feckless followers, eager enablers, and
shameless sycophants.
Not
because he’s yet gotten the just punishments rightfully coming to him or because
there’s any realistic prospect at this late date of convincing the members of
his cult of just how deluded they’ve become or – worse yet – because, once
again, he’s gotten away with flagrantly flaunting his misdeeds, greed, treason,
and utter lack of integrity, empathy or patriotism with the enthusiastic
support of millions of misled, misinformed, and duped MAGA morons.
And
not because we can ever hope that the mainstream network anchors and cable media
mouthpieces – constantly obsessed with dubious and self-serving concerns about fairness
and whatabout-ism and unwilling to confront the weekly two-faced Republican
politicians they parade out on Sunday mornings to promote their pathetic lies and
fictional formulations - will ever call out either Trump or any of his other craven,
crooked, and complicit cronies.
Sadly,
even though they may have the best of intentions, the January 6th
committee isn’t going to save the day either any time soon or maybe ever. They’ve
spent too much time getting ready and – like the DOJ – focused too much to date
on the little guys; the calendar is running out and the midterms are imminent;
they’re still largely stuck in a system of ancient and stupid procedures, inane
legalese, constant delays, and processes designed to elicit anything but the
actual truth; and they’re facing dozens of yet uncalled and unexamined critical
witnesses who continue on a daily basis to illegally obstruct their
investigation without any material consequences.
We
need to get out of this downward spiral of venom, vitriol, and pointless debate
and figure out a way to get beyond our anger and depression about the sad state
of affairs, get out of Trump’s wicked wheelhouse of lies and worsening horrors,
and try to get on with our businesses and our lives because we’ve already spent
too much time treading water and waiting for some evidence of justice,
fairness, decency or explicable resolution that may never come.
Life
and our collective futures are too valuable and important to continue to imperil
by focusing our attention on the leading lying loser of all time. (See https://tullman.blogspot.com/2020/04/what-do-you-tell-your-kids-when-leaders_17.html.)
It’s a hard pill to swallow to suggest that anyone turn away from the ongoing
attempts to destroy our basic democratic institutions or to propose that we
should accept the existential threats to our freedoms and basic ideals which
these arrogant and autocratic scam artists and criminals now overtly assert and
boast about – every day proudly and even more openly - because Trump has opened
the sewers and the windows to the worst instincts of millions and appealed to
their basest beliefs and prejudices.
It’s
hard to stand by and watch the painful destruction of the last vestiges of
trust and decency, but it’s also clear that – at this late date – no amount of
conversation and compromise will sate or satisfy the hoards and hounds that
Trump has invited into our homes and lives. So, in the interests of getting on
with things – not forgetting and certainly not forgiving – I suggest that going
forward as we all return to a workplace full of social sinkholes and tender
sensibilities as well as raw emotions and substantial anger (See https://www.inc.com/howard-tullman/three-rules-for-office-peace.html.)
that we adopt a single rule to save us all massive amounts of angst, anguish
and anger of our own.
The
new rule – which is derived from the 5-second food dropping rule adopted for
kids worldwide – is what I call the one sentence rule. I’m sure that the vast
majority of us have already experienced the sensation and now we need to adopt the
rule as a habit. It may seem impolite at first but believe me, over time, everyone
will thank you for your restraint and courtesy.
The sensation is that growing awareness and surging nausea that comes upon you early on in any suspect conversation when you realize that you’ve blundered upon a MAGA moron and that every breath you expand thereafter and every comment you make will be wasted on someone unwilling to listen and incapable of changing their mind or their opinion about anything related to Trump. No doctor can cure the blind in mind – don’t spend your time trying. If they can’t change their mind, maybe they no longer have one.
The rule is even easier and much less
painful. Simply ask the person if the 2020 election was stolen. If the answer
is “No’, feel free to proceed. If the answer is “Yes”, walk quickly away and
leave. You know all you need to know, and you’ll avoid a great deal of aggravation
and futile effort. Gluttons for punishment can follow up by asking if Trump
stole and refused to return government documents. And masochists can close with
the Raffensperger
retort by asking if Trump - during his beautiful call - asked Brad to “find”
enough fake votes to reverse the outcome of the Georgia results.
