Phil Gerbyshak has posted an article on the power of positivity, which inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography:
If you wish to instruct others, a positive and dogmatical manner in advancing your sentiments may occasion opposition and prevent a candid attention. If you desire instruction from others, you should not, at the same time, express yourself fixed in your present opinions. Modest and sensible men, who do not love disputation, will leave you undisturbed in the possession of your errors. In adopting such a manner, you can seldom expect to please your hearers, or obtain the concurrence you desire.”
He highlighted that the power of positivity is being able to attract other positive people around you to achieve more than possible.
The Power of Positivity – [Phil Gerbyshak]
More power to Phil, but he’s misunderstood Ben Franklin. The quote is from a passage in Franklin’s autobiography in which he discusses his style of argumentation. When Franklin uses the term “positive” here he means “certain of one’s position.” What the quote from Franklin means is: if you want to get people to listen to your arguments (or to explain their’s to you), don’t adopt an attitude of immovable certainty–if you do, people won’t be as likely to listen to you or to offer you their insights. An additional quote from the same section of his autobiography amplifies this nicely:
“…retaining only the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence; never using, when I advanced anything that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any others that give the air of positiveness to an opinion….”