We need to grow some balls.
Not all of us – there are some folks that have balls the size of Jupiter and show them every day. But they’re becoming fewer in numbers, and that’s a shame.
A lot of folks blame social media for this. I can see why. If you question someone and they’re a person of “influence”, usually you get a shit-storm of comments about you being a hater. Right, like having an opinion means you hate something…
Or if you call something out as being bunkum, again you can often get a ton of crap landing on your doorstep as people question your brains, your ethics, your sanity and more. And on social media (or the web full stop), it’s easy to hide behind the wall of the virtual burning pitchfork along with the rest of A-lister X or Influencer Y’s minions.
But the thing is, it’s not just social media – it’s society as a whole, and social media is just part of the blame.
In business, “leaders” have forgotten what it really means to lead. Instead, they bully employees into thinking their ideas are dumb, and while the employee is on the ground picking their shredded idea up, make sure they stop and get a coffee on the way back.
Educators are telling our brightest students that they won’t have a voice in the business world when they leave college, so be quiet, just listen to your superiors, and maybe – just maybe – they’ll get on in their chosen profession.
Lovers are putting down the ones they supposedly adore by saying they’ll never amount to much and that mother was right, I should have married the guy or gal from the family with the Porsche in the driveway.
Stop. Please. Stop right now.
This is bullcrap. And we’re allowing ourselves to fall for it.
So what if you don’t have the best idea? At least you have an idea and have the balls to put it on the line. So what if you’re the youngest? Know when Mozart began writing symphonies? FOUR YEARS OLD!
And if your partner really blames you for all their inadequacies, find a new partner.
We’ve allowed ourselves to be led by others because we fear what will happen if we think for ourselves. Actually, scratch that – it’s not the ability to think for ourselves that we’ve lost, but the belief in our thoughts being right and following through on those convictions.
And that’s wrong – you know why? There is no such thing as perfection – everything can be improved. And the “experts” don’t always have the best ideas on how to do so.
So, please. Grow some balls. Question everything. Settle for nothing. Even the most common sense answers can always be enhanced through questions and ideas.
If you already have balls and you’re doing this, you can ignore this post and carry on doing what you’re doing. Although if you have some extra balls to go around, feel free to share with those that need a little help. We all need to stop this malaise, and extra balls might just do the trick.
Sound fair?
image: Rafael Penaloza