The benefit of the doubt

Part One

If you were going to optimize for just one thing in your life—one thing that would make everything else easier—what would it be?

For me, it would be giving people the benefit of the doubt.

Family, friends, my kids, Kayte, clients, prospects, people who call and then aren't there when I answer the phone, people driving in front of me, people driving behind me, people who are "more successful" than me, people who are "less successful" than me, people with pets, people without pets, people who like music I don't like, people who think copywriting is a legal profession, people who still use twitter, people who've never used twitter, people who like sportsball, people who don't like sportsball, delivery drivers, grocery bin packers, everyone in retail, doctors, even lawyers, maybe even politicians, people who are sarcastic even when trying to write their souls into an earnest run-on sentence that I'm not even going to bother running through Grammarly .

And everyone else too.

The benefit of the doubt for all of them.

Part Two

To clarify: I don't mean to trust people who haven't earned our trust.

I meant to start by assuming the best.

Or, more specifically, to not start by assuming the worst.

- Act as if that person's driving slowly because they're taking their newborn baby home from the hospital.

- Act as if my kid's trying to get my attention (again) just to say, "I love you."

- Act as if that client didn't get back to me on time because someone they love needed their help immediately.

That's what I mean by giving people the benefit of the doubt.

To quote someone on my list who replied to this email when I sent it originally: "And even if everyone is out to get me, living like they are has never brought me happiness."

No doubt,

James

P.S. If you enjoyed this, check out my (week)daily email (also called One Creative Moment), where I publish short, personal, often irreverent posts for founders and SMB owners who want better results from their life and/or marketing.