Want to impress, advance, gather respect
Then repeat after me
I am sorry
I can do better
I see the opportunity
I accept my responsibility
I read the published letter many years ago. The letter by the charismatic Pakistani cricketer, a playboy turned born-again Muslim, a politician and now the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan.
The letter talked about his previous life in the fast lane with mistakes made and how he had changed to become a more spiritual person who was now entering politics. It talked about forgiveness of the past not so proud moments and the hope for a yet unforeseen better future which as things turned out was still decades away.
Now that I believe was a masterstroke with the letter talking about accepting responsibility for prior errors and wanting to move on as a better person, a sort of a blanket for the past follies if you may.
And here President Trump I believe you missed a trick.
Somewhere in those early days or perhaps even today many of us would have loved to hear something like this from you,
“While I stand before you today as your President, this is not something I was planning for or expecting most of my life. I have had some, shall we say, less than perfect moments in my life before today and I am not proud of them, but I ask you all to judge me going forward in time from now onwards and not back.”
President Trump do you realize what such a statement does. It takes away the need for you to fight back each and every time, to create endless enemies, bad blood and divisions over every silly little thing which keeps popping up. In not doing so you basically condemned yourself to stay forever glued to the follies of your past.
Such a statement would have shown your human side, like the rest of us, never angels, only people, learning, growing and looking to better ourselves.
Maybe it is still not too late to give yourself and all or us this break!