And now for the dumbest sentence I’ve typed yet: Conversations only have two actions – Listening and Speaking.
Of the two, listening is 0% risky. Depending on the conversation topic, speaking can range from 1% to 100% risky. So if you have to err to one side or the other, always err to listening.
Speaking is important too and if you go mute, you’ll look like an idiot. If you don’t speak up when people are going to do something dumb, you are hurting everyone. Pros must be excellent communicators, but you really need to pick your moments.
Anything said publicly carries a range of percentage risks and between when i originally wrote this advice in 2012 and today – boy have those risks grown significantly. A Pro must look to minimize those risks when speaking. So for the love of god, if you hear that little voice inside your head saying, “Hey, maybe you should keep that to yourself” heed that warning.
You’ll always have more chances to say stuff. But you can never take back something truly stupid.