I hate when people lie to me. In fact, I hate it so much, that I’ve become almost the polar opposite—too honest; brutally honest even. I think that being honest in the caliber that I am has a bad reputation—that being completely honest makes one heartless, rude, and harsh; but, I think that people are just getting too sheltered and way too sensitive for their own good.
Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist said: “Sometimes people have a beef against me, and part of the beef comes from being a little too direct in my feedback. To me, the other thing I’m rigorous about is intellectual honesty. To me, honesty is really, really important. That means when an entrepreneur is screwing up, I call him and say, “You’re screwing up. Okay?” I’m not polite. I prefer brutal honesty to hypocritical politeness any time of the day. Because fundamentally, every time you’re hypocritically polite in a situation where it matters, the outcome is going to be impacted, you hurt the company, the entrepreneurs, and all the people you have helped recruit.”
While being “hypocritically polite” in normal, everyday situations may not impact a person’s quality of life in the way Mr. Khosla said, it will still be impacted. For example, the old cliché of “do these pants make my butt (thighs, ankles, knees, calves) look fat?” the answer to that will affect that person’s day! If I was walking around looking like Mariah Carey (a stuffed sausage), I would definitely want to know.
That being said (and sorry to any die hard M.C. fans, if they exist?) I have made it a practice to be brutally honest, sometimes it hurts, yes, but in the long run it’s SO much better. I would rather someone tell me that I look ugly (or have a crappy boyfriend, or I need to change my attitude, etc.) and save myself the embarrassment of parading around looking (and being) anything less than the vision of loveliness I usually am (ha-ha) and want to be. I like people to be honest with me, so I’m honest with them.
The purpose of this blog is to give people a heavy dose of reality that is seemingly missing from the world. I’m an extremely honest person—I’m not the stereotypical girl that hides her feelings and is soft-spoken. If something happens that upsets me, I’ll be SURE to let that person (or some other lucky soul ha-ha) know. Life is too short to be coy and secretive. There is such beauty and release that comes from being brutally honest. Be it on the topic of whom you’re dating and what I think of them, the outfit you’re wearing, a problem you’re having, I’m going to be honest with you and it might not be what you want to hear, but it WILL be what you probably NEED to hear.
If you need a dose of “brutal honesty” send me an email at letterstoamy@gmail.com and I’d be more than happy to give you a dose of my signature brutal honesty. Of course, all letters will be left anonymous unless otherwise specified :]
Brutally Yours,
Amy
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