The Detractors

Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we shall have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us therefore study the incidents in this as philosophy to learn wisdom from and none of them as wrongs to be avenged. – Abraham Lincoln

I’m currently participating in a self-challenge to read a book a week, inspired by Julien Smith who has completed this task many times before. This last month has killed me due to my house experiencing intense water damage, I haven’t been able to keep up. But this last week I picked up the “Complete Writings of Abraham Lincoln” which is interesting from a historical, public speaking, thinking, and writing perspective.

As this quote was referring to the presidential election I thought he makes a great point about detractors, people will always choose sides, whether it is for public policy, charities, blog posts, and twitter updates. As many begin blogging they seek to please everyone but as they quickly find out, there is simply no way for you to please everyone at the same time. Though many will find this as a limitation to what they can do and how they will present their thoughts; to me, it is liberating. Understanding that human nature will always exist, meaning there will always be people who have strong or weak opinions for your argument or against it. Knowing that allows you the freedom to push forward without censoring yourself for the sake of what a detractor might think.

The other aspect of this quote that stuck with me is that it would seem that Abraham Lincoln didn’t simply ignore the detractors yet he gathered all comments, concerns, and passions, weighing them against his own thoughts. He instead of writing follow-up letters or speeches to address the detractors he would learn from everyone’s opinions and actions.

In business, any time we take a stand for or against a mindset we will find some who for no apparent reason seek to correct us according to their standard of thinking. We must not wavier only to seek approval of our detractors because we will never satisfy everyone’s cognitive standards. However, we should never be too proud to think that our philosophy and actions are the only correct ones to be made or assumed.

Business is an ever-changing target, so to assume that we have arrived at final set of standards is not only ignorant but precarious. Let us therefore study our detractors to learn wisdom from them for every perceived correct ideology is another persons perceived flawed ideology. To disagree is human nature, let us not get caught up in the argument without balanced objectivity.