FFN 052： What if You're Wrong？
Episode Stats
Summary
In this episode of The Manliest Podcast Available, Ryan talks about the concept of "what if you're wrong" and why it's a critical question to ask yourself. He also discusses the importance of being willing to admit that maybe you're not as right as you think you are.
Transcript
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You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest. Embrace your fears and boldly chart your own path.
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When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time.
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You are not easily deterred or defeated. Rugged. Resilient. Strong.
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This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become.
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At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.
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Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler, and I am the host and the founder of this podcast, The Order of Man.
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Whether you are tuning in for the first time or you've been listening to every episode for the last two years,
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I do want to welcome you to the manliest podcast available.
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As you can tell by the sound of my voice, I am feeling a lot better this week than I was last week,
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and I'm ready to tackle this thing with you today.
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A couple of quick housekeeping items before I get into the meat of this discussion, though.
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First, if you haven't hit that little subscribe button, make sure that you do that now so you never miss your Friday Field Notes or our interview show,
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Earlier this week, I had a conversation with Dr. Robert Glover, who is the author of the book No More Mr. Nice Guy.
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Guys, that podcast has produced more feedback, more engagement than just about any other show.
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So if you haven't heard that one yet, make sure you go check that out.
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Second, head over to our Facebook group with just shy of 28,000 members now.
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We're having some incredible conversations on all the important subjects of masculinity,
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and I know you're going to want to participate in that.
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You can do that at facebook.com slash groups slash order of man.
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Other than that, if you like what I or any of our guests have to say,
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just one of your friends or your brothers, your dad, your coworkers,
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basically any other man that you think could use some of the message that we are sharing.
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Guys, let's dive into the topic of today, which is the question, what if you're wrong?
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I think this is a critical, a critical question.
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Quite honestly, it's one that doesn't get asked or even answered a whole lot,
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but just look around for a minute and see if you can recognize very many people who'd be willing to admit they're wrong
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and even ask yourself if you're willing to admit to being wrong.
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And I'd bet that it's significantly easier for most of us, including myself, to say that we aren't,
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And the problem with that, believing that we're never wrong,
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is that it creates and exposes blind spots in our lives, in our relationships, our health, our fitness, politics, business,
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And what ends up happening more often than not is that our egos, it's our egos.
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It prevents us from seeing that maybe, just maybe, we don't have this thing figured out as much as we'd like.
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And maybe there's a new way of looking at this thing that you have not considered.
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are you more interested in being right all the time, which is impossible, you and I aren't,
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or are you more interested in getting the job done?
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Because sometimes getting that job done requires you to be humble and to say, I don't know.
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Sometimes it requires you to raise your hand and actually ask for some help.
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Sometimes it requires you to question what you might believe.
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Every single person listening to this podcast right now knows deep in their heart when they're wrong,
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but letting those words pass by their lips is so difficult to do.
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So I want to reframe this a little bit so that it becomes easier for you and me to recognize when we fall short,
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apologize if needed, and actually fix the problem.
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Some of the greatest military commanders the world has ever known ask themselves,
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what if I'm wrong after drafting up a battle plan?
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For example, they're actually looking to prove themselves wrong because if they can,
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they've recognized a weak spot and they can address that weak spot before they put lives on the line.
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Successful CEOs of companies do it all the time.
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They hire teams and consultants, they run beta tests, they quote-unquote red team,
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but they're actively looking for flaws in their products and their services and their launches
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they can potentially save the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost or potential revenue.
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Trial lawyers, they understand this concept very well.
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When crafting opening remarks or defense or prosecution strategies,
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they don't just consider theirs and their client's perspective,
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they also consider the opposing side's perspective
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because if they can anticipate weaknesses in their own strategy,
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then they can adjust as necessary for that success that they're after, for the win.
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And this is the beauty of playing devil's advocate with yourself
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or being your best critic or of a humble heart and a humble mind.
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You become stronger because you see where you're weak
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and you give yourself the opportunity to actually do something about it.
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But considering those examples I just gave you,
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the military strategy, successful CEOs, trial lawyers,
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consider how often you and I actually do this in our ordinary everyday lives.
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Consider the argument for a minute that you just got in with your wife.
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Was what she was mad about actually your fault?
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Consider the disagreement you got in on Facebook,
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You were so busy trying to prove that you know it all
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that you missed an opportunity to learn something new.
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that you neglected to include a critical component
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or even a person that would have ensured that project's success.
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So let me tell you again why approaching situations
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from the position of being wrong is so valuable.
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Only one of two outcomes will happen when you do this.
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The first outcome is that you recognize you're wrong
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and you've learned something new that's going to help enhance your life.
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The second outcome is that you find out you're not wrong
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and you solidify your belief in that thing, whatever that thing is.
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approaching your life from this perspective that you might be wrong,
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this is not a permission slip for you to lose confidence.
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It's not a permission slip for you to overthink
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This is about a healthy level of skepticism in how good you are,
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but it should come from the position of making you
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And beating yourself up and questioning your intelligence
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You know why it's so important to approach your life this way,
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It's okay to approach everything with that healthy dose of skepticism,
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but at the end of the day, that BS is still worthless,
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regardless of how tightly you might cling onto it.
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And the third component of this is be a man of substance.
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on the same subject over and over and over again.