How expensive can losing an argument be? Sometimes, it’s the same price as winning one, so you might as well fold your tent at the first sign of trouble and just move on. Let me give you an example.
The other day, my wife told me she’d lost her diamond earrings and that it was my fault. Sure, I had logic going for me – I’d never touched the earrings, so how could I have lost them? Still, I caved almost instantly.
Here’s the conversation in its entirety – you decide if I played it right.
“Why aren’t you wearing your diamond earrings tonight?” I asked.
“I lost them,” Linda said.
“You lost your diamond earrings? The ones I got you for our anniversary?”
“Yes, and it’s your fault.”
“Wait a minute, you lost your earrings and it’s my fault?”
“Yes. I lost them because they’re so small. If you’d gotten me bigger diamonds, I wouldn’t have lost them.”
I ended up buying new, bigger diamond earrings. It was a Custer and the Indians kind of thing. The outcome was never in doubt after the first couple of seconds and, I knew, the price was going to be the same win or lose.