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The Real Reason You Were Fired
September 19, 2004
(PAGE 2 of 2)
The reason he got upset, the reason he called you stupid was because here you were, there not even two weeks, and you spat on the man. Yes, spat on the man. One big glob of disgusting spit. You hawked it right in his face. You may not see that way, but he sure as hell did. The man had given you the most precious commodity you could have in this world, his world, the world of business: a free ride. No one gets a free ride, ever. But yet here you were, and you were getting one. You told him, you don’t need his free ride. You don’t need his help. You could face down your enemies on your own. Bring it on. You can take them. Go ahead, give me all they’ve got. But you miscalculated. You didn’t know your enemy. Your enemies weren’t at your side. Your enemy in the boardroom is only one man. Your enemy was right in front of you, and you put the knife right back in his hands.
So what would you have accomplished by asking for your exemption back? You would have told the man, you weren’t thinking at the time—but now you were. You now saw what you clearly didn’t before—that you were insulting the man and the amount of power that he had over you. You would have told him that that was never your intention. What you would have shown the man was that you knew he could fire you and that he would. Unless that is you did something smart for once to change his mind. But you weren’t smart enough to ask. You weren’t on your game enough to know you were done. You just sat there on your high horse, begging to be knocked down. You knew no humility. You just sat there and defended yourself, insisting that you were such hot shit that you didn’t deserve to be canned. You may have erred in your thinking but you certainly didn’t deserve to be fired over it. Well, you most certainly did—and you were.
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Sure Trump would have had a field day with you once you asked. You would have been skewered for it. The whole room would have guffawed. Carolyn would have rolled her eyes and George would have grimaced. Indecisive. That was the word of the day, after all. You would have been slapped with it, hard. Trump would have made one big joke of you. They would have all laughed. But you know what? You would have been laughing right along with them. You would have laughed so hard that it would have rolled right off your back. Trump would have told you, you made your bed, and now you had to lie in it. The man would have grabbed at the opportunity to make an example of you. You may have had to sit there and take your licks, but the man would have said his peace. The point would have been made. There would have been no reason left to fire you. The man liked you. The man didn’t want to see you go. The man would have moved on.
So Bradford, Trump was right. You were stupid.
You just weren’t stupid for the reason you thought
you were. Which is the point. The man was
right to let you go.
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Your enemy in the boardroom is only one man. Your enemy was right in front of you, and you put the knife right back in his hands.
