Confidence

Mike Rowe is, I think, one of the most fascinating people in America. He hosted “Dirty Jobs” and produced a podcast called “The Way I Heard It.”

I was recently listening to an episode of his podcast where he referenced his role as a narrator on a television series called “How the Universe Works.”

The script said that there were 100 billion galaxies in the known universe. So, that’s what Rowe said in his recording.

The next week, scientists established that there are more than 2 trillion galaxies.

To be fair, Rowe was communicating the best information he had at the time.

But he made and interesting statement after the fact.

“I sound no less certain when I’m right than I do when I’m wrong.”

I am so guilty of sounding certain when I’m wrong. It’s usually an honest mistake.

But I don’t like to admit that I don’t know something – especially when I feel like I should.

I want to be the expert. I want to have the answers.

The truth, though, is that I sound no less certain when I’m right than I do when I’m wrong.

I’m usually not the smartest person in the room. I’m not being self-degrading – just honest. I’m smart on a couple of subjects. But I’m a novice at best on just about everything else.

So are you.

You’re knowledgeable on certain subjects but you’re a novice on just about everything else. That’s not a slight. It’s just what it is. We can’t know everything about everything.

Here’s the point.

We get things wrong. We just do. Let’s be slow to take a stand when we don’t have all of the information and quick to retract when our stand turns out to be wrong.

Let’s also be discerning in which stands are worth taking. Not every hill is worth dying on.