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Unsolicited Encouragement / Unsolicited Advice

A while back, I wrote in "Six Steps to Getting Honest Critical Feedback" -

I think that’s true, but I still try to almost never give negative criticism to anyone, ever.

“As a general rule…people ask for advice only in order not to follow it; or if they do follow it, in order to have someone to blame for giving it.” — From Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers”

I’ve found the vast majority of people will never take any criticism you give them, will be upset at you for criticizing them, and will dislike you even more if you were right.

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Kipling - "If"

Thanks to Shanna Mann for pointing me to this. Lovely poem.

"If" by Rudyard Kipling, 1895

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If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or, being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master; If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;