There are two kinds of people in the world:
- Those that want to be right.
- Those that want to do the right thing.
There is certainly some crossover there, but if your focus is always trying to “be right” you might miss opportunities to shift gears and do the right thing.
In Kim Scott’s book “Radical Candor“, she shares this thought from Steve Jobs about being right.
I don’t mind being wrong. And I’ll admit that I’m wrong a lot. It doesn’t really matter to me too much. What matters to me is that we do the right thing. In my experience, people who are more concerned with getting to the right answer than with being right make the best bosses. That’ s because they keep learning and improving, and they push the people who work for them to do the same.
Steve is remembered as someone that was very intense and would push people beyond their limits, but if you stood up to him and showed him a better way to get something done, he’d listen.
I try to do the same, and remember that when it happens I end up being less wrong than I was before.
