Dr. Mark Goulston
is a former UCLA professor who helps high performing leaders, senior
management and sales people reach their full potential using skills he
learned training FBI and police hostage negotiators. He is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors and the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches and writes the weekly Tribune syndicated career advice column, "Solve Anything with Dr. Mark" and 
columns on leadership for FAST COMPANY and Directors Monthly and is an expert at People Jam.
He is frequently called upon to share his expertise with regard to
contemporary business, national and world news by television, radio and
print media including: Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, Los Angeles Times, ABC/NBC/CBS/Fox/CNN/BBC News, Oprah, and Today. Mark Goulston is the author of The 6 Secrets of a Lasting Relationship, Get Out of Your Own Way: Overcoming Self-Defeating Behavior, Get Out of Your Own Way at Work and PTSD for Dummies. For more information visit: www.markgoulston.com.
Mark Goulston--
"Would you buy a used country of either of these guys?"
What are we watching and listening for during the Democratic and then
Republican National Conventions this and next week? We are looking for a reason
"buy in" rather than "rule out" candidates. Why do I believe that?
Here's why...
A skeptic is someone who is reluctant to trust and believe; a cynic is
someone who refuses to trust and believe. Show me a skeptic and I'll show you
someone who once trusted and believed and was disappointed; show me a cynic and
I'll show you someone who once trusted and believed and was betrayed. But deep
inside all skeptics and most cynics is a deep abiding ache to trust and believe
again, but to do so free of the fear of being disappointed and betrayed
again.
With Bill Clinton we were disappointed in his personal character flaws. We
felt ashamed for and about him, but we didn't feel betrayed, because we didn't
have to die for his sins. With George W. Bush we felt betrayed by his flawed
judgment, because so many of our young men and women have died for it, not to
mention the economic conundrum it has created.
We have not yet been disappointed or betrayed by the Presidential
candidates and hope it will not occur, but don't believe in our hearts it
won't. Without the future to determine whether or not we will be let down by yet
another President, we are left to figuring out who we can trust and believe. The
filter we use to determine that is whether what they say and do makes sense (i.e
seems reasonable), feels right (i.e. doesn't trigger discomfort in our guts) and
is doable (i.e. something that is executable by mere mortals like you and
me).
Aug 26, 2008 
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments