A sailor caught up in the celebration of his ships leave got drunk.
The captain entered in his log "Mate drunk tonight". The mate begged
the captain, "I've never been drunk on board before. You know I have
always been sober and unless you add that truth I will be relieved
of my navel duties".
The captain refused to modify his entry.
A few days later the mate was making his entry in the log. Among
others he made this one; "Captain was sober today." The captain
was outraged when he read this entry " You have created a false
impression in the minds of those who read this entry. They will
believe it is unusual for me to be sober."
The sailor replied "my statement is true and it will remain in
the log."
So what do we have here? Two men telling the truth or not?
Although both men were accurate, they misrepresented each
other. Overstatements as well as understatements may create
a false inference. Simply stated one half truth plus another
half truth does not equal the whole truth.
Do you tell half truths? Do you while not being dishonest
deliberately miss parts of stories so as to misrepresent
someone or a situation?
-- Frank Shapiro
Complete Person Newsletter
In The Business Of Bringing Out Your Best
frank@completeperson.com
www.completeperson.com
Comments