When You're Wrong
My son says, “I’m sorry”… a lot.
I catch myself telling him not to apologize so much. I’ve never really felt that way with anyone else. Most people avoid accountability, they deflect, they defend, they double down. But him? He owns it. He’s self-aware. Quick to correct himself.
That’s why I wrestle with what to say. I want him confident. I want him to stand tall, to know his value, to not shrink every time he slips up. But there’s real strength buried in his humility.
Most people never develop that. His need to take responsibility, that’s the foundation for character.
So I remind him: Confidence doesn’t mean you’re never wrong. It means you know your worth even when you are. And humility? It’s not about shrinking, it’s strength that owns the gaps and keeps growing.
His apologies aren’t weakness. They just need shaping, into humility that builds confidence, not buries it.
In the late 1980s, Ray Dalio stood in front of his investment firm, Bridgewater....humiliated.
He had just made a bold, confident market prediction. One that he staked his reputation and capital on. And he was dead wrong.
Dalio had forecasted that the global economy was heading for a major depression. He believed the debt crisis and inflation would trigger an economic collapse similar to 1929. He went on national television and publicly declared his prediction. He advised clients accordingly. He positioned Bridgewater for the downturn.
Then...it didn't happen....the markets didn't crash. In fact, the economy rebounded. The stock market soared. Dalio's dire prediction was off.....way off.
His clients lost confidence. His firm lost money. And he lost credibility.
The ultimate sting didn't just come from the loss....it came from his own team. They weren't afraid to tell him exactly where he missed it. Point by point, flaw by flaw, they dismantled his logic.
Up to that point, Bridgewater was still evolving. Dalio operated with strong opinions, high confidence, but that humility muscle hadn’t been fully tested under public failure. After that embarrassment, he realized:
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His thinking wasn’t bulletproof.
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His success would depend on building an environment where anyone could challenge ideas, including his own.
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The pain of being corrected upfront was better than the consequences of being wrong unchecked.
In other words, that event didn’t just reveal flaws in his forecast, it exposed gaps in his system. That’s when radical transparency became a formal, non-negotiable part of Bridgewater’s DNA.
Most leaders buckle under that level of correction. Most surround themselves with people who tell them what they want to hear, because it's comfortable, because it's easy, because the illusion of competence feels better than the reality-check of truth.
Dalio saw something different. He realized the brutal honesty, as painful as it was, was a gift. It revealed blind spots. It refined his thinking. And it built something most people never develop:
The mental toughness to be corrected without crumbling.
Most people can't handle it. Not in the boardroom. Not in their relationships. Not even in quiet moments alone. They mistake correction for rejection. They confuse being wrong with being weak. So they avoid feedback. They defend poor decisions. They live in an echo chamber...until the real world forces its correction.
What they don't recognize is when you reject feedback, you stunt your growth.
When you surround yourself with yes-men, you build walls of false confidence.
When your ego is untouchable, your foundation becomes fragile.
The short-term effects:
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Missed opportunities to grow yourself.
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Repeating the same avoidable mistakes.
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Slowly eroding your own influence, because people stop believing you’re open to change.
The long-term effects:
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Leadership that's built on sand.
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A life where your potential is capped by your pride.
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Regret. Eventually, the truth shows up whether you invite it or not.
The people who grow the fastest aren't the smartest, they're the most correctable.
Dalio built Bridgewater on radical transparency. A culture where ideas get challenged. Where logic gets tested. Where no one, including him is above correction.
Most people you know couldn't survive in that environment. But maybe that's exactly why they stay stuck.
Correction is uncomfortable. It forces you to confront your gaps, the spaces between who you think you are and who you really are. Without that discomfort, you plateau. You coast on reputation, not reality.
Most people are addicted to the appearance of strength. They’d rather look like they have it together than actually get it together. Real strength is found in those moments when your ego gets punched in the gut, and you’re still standing, still listening, still learning.
The answer to all of this is humility.
The humility to admit you don’t see everything. The humility to let others sharpen your thinking. The humility to trade short-term comfort for long-term clarity.
In my own personal experiences avoiding correction I've found life will correct you anyway....through missed opportunities, broken relationships, and painful consequences. When you invite correction, you gain control. You shape your growth on your terms.
If you are not willing to practice humility, you will eventually be humiliated. The sooner you can stand in front of your flaws, the sooner you can outgrow them.
In the process, you'll build a life, a leadership, and a legacy that’s sustains, not because you're never wrong, but because you're always willing to be made right.
And the leaders who last, the ones you respect, they aren't the ones who avoided correction, they're the ones who mastered it.
Humility is like medicine that is hard to swallow. While it may taste horrible it heals your blindspots and soothes your shortcomings. It becomes a daily prescription that makes you stronger with each dosage. It's not the easy path, but what good thing is?
Today’s Forced Challenge: I want you to FORCE yourself to attack at least one of these challenges:
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Invite Direct Critique from Someone You Normally Avoid Hearing From: Ask a colleague, family member, or friend who challenges you, not the easy supporter, to tell you one thing you could be doing better. No defending. Just listen.
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Publicly Admit a Recent Mistake: Share a story (online or in person) where you got it wrong... own it fully, no excuses, no sugarcoating. Watch how uncomfortable your ego gets…and how freeing it is.
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Spend One Full Day Acting as the Student, Not the Expert: In every conversation or meeting today, assume you’re the least informed person in the room. Prioritize asking questions over offering opinions.
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Sit in Silence with Discomfort: When corrected, rejected, or exposed, resist reacting. No rebuttal, no instant fix. Just sit in the discomfort for five minutes. Growth often starts there.
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Practice Saying “I Don’t Know” Out Loud: When you're unsure about something... say it openly. Most people fake certainty. Humility starts where pretending stops.
Humility is where real strength quietly begins. It doesn’t need to be loud or impressive, it works beneath the surface, sharpening your thinking, exposing your blind spots, and making you harder to knock down.
Most people avoid that process because it’s uncomfortable to see your flaws in full view, but the ones who lean in, who invite correction, build something solid. Pride builds a shaky image. Humility builds a lasting foundation.
“Humility isn’t thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”
— C.S. Lewis
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