Always Have An Opinion

Good day peoples,

I recently had the "pleasure" of having a brief lunchtime "discussion" with one of the boys in the building. It went a little something like this:


Me: Hey, Paulo, did you watch the football game last night?

Paulo: Yeah, did you?

Me: Of course, you idiot, why else would I bring it up? Who do you think's the toughest team dispite the score?

Paulo: I don't know.

Me: What do you mean you don't know, who do you think plays better?

Paulo: I don't know.

Me: I think England are looking weak this time round, don't you agree?

Paulo: I don't know, whatever you say I guess.

Me: I know what I think, you thick head, I'm asking for your opinion.

Paulo: I don't have an opinion, whoever wins is fine by me.

Me: Forget about it! Hey, Daudi, mind if I join you for lunch...

No opinion means no brains

I know Paulo isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I wasn't asking him what he thought about the theory of relativity. I just wanted to know which team, in his opinion, is superior. Whether what he says makes any sense is besides the point; the point is that he did not have an opinion on such a simple thing.

When I ask someone what their opinion is on a given topic, I expect to get an answer. Something, anything is usually better than "I don't know." I assume that if someone has an opinion about some topic it's because they've taken some time to reflect and have come to at least a preliminary conclusion regarding the subject at hand.

If they have an opinion, it shows me that they are thinking. If they don't have one, then I have to question if the light bulb in their head is on or not. Everyone needs to surround themselves with the right people and the right people always have an opinion.

No Need To Advertise Everything
Don't get me wrong, just because you have an opinion about something doesn't mean you need to open your megaphone and broadcast it to the world. Some things should be kept to yourself. But if you are having a discussion and someone asks for your opinion, it's usually safe to share your thoughts on the subject. Unless, of course, your boss asks you if his new girlfriend Babette is hot. In this case, simply say you never looked at her in that way (sometimes safety is the best policy).

Anyhow, what I'm getting at with all this is that you can keep your opinion to yourself if you prefer. If you are in a room full of people don't shoot your mouth off. Be smart about what you say and when you say it. The important thing to remember is that you should always have an opinion on the subject, however misguided and there's no need to break a sweat over it.

Opinions count for a lot more than you might think in business. Bill Gates started Microsoft because it was his opinion that computers would be everywhere someday soon, and that his software would run on most of them. Look at him today.

Good Business Opinion
In life and business, our minds focus on solutions to problems. Each time we tackle a dilemma successfully, we become stronger and more experienced for it, and hopefully we learn a lesson about success.

In the business world, opinion plays a larger part than most people think. When a company hires managers and executives, it will often ask for professional and character references. The interviewers have your resume in front of their eyes while they're holding your MBA from some elite university in their hands, yet they usually need one more thing to make their decision, other people's opinion of you.

Sure, they don't say it outright, but they will call your former boss and ask what kind of worker you were. They will ask subtle questions that help them figure out what kind of person you are. When do you get a job the fastest? When someone sets you and the employer up.

Suppose your next-door neighbor tells his friend at Citibank (who happens to be looking to fill an important position and who trusts his friend, your neighbor, very much) that he's got the perfect candidate for him. What will happen? He'll gloss over your credentials and base his decision on what his friend told him about you.

You are already way ahead of the competition. When you go in for the interview, he is already seeing you in a positive light. All he needs to figure out is whether he really likes you. If so, you've got the job. Short and sweet. So you see, opinion counts for something, which is why Paulo's work tools consist of a mop, pail and toilet brush. 

Decisions Require An Opinion
You will have to make decisions every day of your life. Whether that means buying the Armani or Valentino suit, or which Enterprise Resource Planning software to implement company-wide, you will always have to make choices.

Making decisions means you will have to learn about what you need to decide. You will go through the quantitative and qualitative aspects and will have to come up with an answer to which course of action to follow.

What if your counterparts come up with a different answer? This is where opinion counts, you must be able to boil it down to why you think this is the best thing to do. If you don't have an opinion, you'll never move up the ladder and you can get stuck holding the mop and pail. One more thing, it helps if you have a reputation of being "on-the-ball."

the audacious truth