Ep 69 | When in Doubt, Disclose - George & the Cherry Tree with Brian Gubernick

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today we are going to talk about trust, and we're going to use a story that many of us are familiar with about George Washington. And why are we gonna talk George Washington today? Because, well, he exemplifies what it means to be trustworthy, but it's also Independence Day, and in celebration of the Fourth of July, I thought we should probably talk about a historical figure, someone who's meant a great deal to this nation, and war hero, and first president of the United States, George Washington. Probably fits the bill. So, let's talk about George, and the story I want to talk about is the one about George and the cherry tree. Now, this story, we've all heard about the cherry tree, and I had to do a little research because I was just curious, what was the complete story, and did it really happen? So, let's, let's tell the story here. So, George and the cherry tree, are a popular story many of us have heard. It's been passed down from generation to generation. And according to the story, when George was around 6 years old, he received a hatchet as a gift from his father. Now, I don't know if today's fathers give their sons a hatchet, but back in the 1700s, apparently that was something you did. And so George got a hatchet as a gift from his father. And he was super excited to test out this new, this new tool. And so he's running around his family's property, so the story goes, and he's looking for things to cut. And one day George comes across a tree that's on the family's land, and it's a cherry tree. And this tree, I believe, as the story goes, was one that had always intrigued George. It was one he had seen many a time, It was a special kind of tree, and as a 6-year-old, he decided, "You know what? This particular tree that I'm fascinated by, I'm gonna test my hatchet on that one." And so what's he do? He chops it down. George chops down the cherry tree. After a few swings, tree falls down, and George is excited, but then he is struck with a feeling of guilt. George's father, not too long after that, discovers the tree. Mr. Washington is probably not too happy. He's probably pretty upset by this damage, and when he calls out George, when he says, "George, what happened here? Who did it?" George could not tell a lie. He had admitted to cutting down that tree with his hatchet, and His father, having now had his son admit to him he cut down the tree, couldn't really be mad. He was actually quite proud of his son, as the story goes. He was very, very happy that his son was honest and truthful. He valued George's integrity. And supposedly Mr. Washington said, "I would rather lose 1,000 trees than have my son tell a lie. I would rather lose 1,000 trees than for myself to tell a lie. This tale, this story, has been used again from generation to generation to demonstrate or to showcase George Washington's dedication and commitment to integrity, to honesty, to being trustworthy. Now, as I did more research on the story, it turns out that it is likely a fictionalized account and maybe something that didn't actually occur. There's lots of mixed messages out there. Something probably did happen. I don't know if it went down as clean and clear as the story I just told. It appeared in a— the story first appeared in a biography about George Washington. That was written, I don't know, shortly after his presidency. I think it was sometime in the early 1800s, and the author that had written the story was actually well known for the tales that he would weave into his stories. Regardless, the story, the anecdote, is ingrained in U.S. history, is ingrained in all of us. We were all taught it in elementary school. And while it may not be factually accurate, it is a fantastic story about the importance of not telling a lie. Now, today's topic is about trust, and I wanna pivot just a slight bit. Not too long ago, a recent episode, I was talking about a lesson I had learned that I had documented alongside a number of other lessons in an exercise that I had asked my mastermind group to complete, which was to go back through their time and start to document their lessons, their life lessons around their dumbest mistakes, their biggest failures, their poorest decisions, document those lessons or those experiences and tell us what they learned from those experiences. And so I had given a lesson recently around failure and dusting yourself off. Well, Another lesson of mine, one that is top 5 for me. I won't tell the entire story, but I'll share with you all something that I learned. And what I learned and what I honor and live by today, I think about it in all sorts of different scenarios on almost a daily basis because lots of things come up. And that lesson, that phrase, is very, very short, very simple. When in doubt, disclose. When in doubt, disclose. Now, what does that mean? What that means to me is anytime I contemplate, should I share whatever's on my mind? Should I share what I know about this situation? Should I withhold this particular information because it may do damage and it'll work itself out down the road, or whatever it may be? My experience now at 44 years old, having gone through a little bit of life and business and all of that, is that 9 out of 10 times when I'm not upfront and direct about a specific feeling or a situation, it almost— it comes back to bite me in the ass. Probably more than 9 out of 10. It's probably 99% of the time. So when I say, "When in doubt, disclose," that is a statement around being trustworthy. It is a statement around being transparent and honest and direct. So the lesson for me is when I have something that I'm contemplating thinking about or even considering not sharing because of the damage it may do at that moment, or maybe I think it'll magically work itself out, I now default to immediately disclosing. And while disclosing may actually create some challenge on the front end, for me personally, it's always worked out in the long term. More favorably than the options available to me. So the lessons today, George Washington and, and being trustworthy and the story of the cherry tree, and my lesson around when in doubt disclose, which is one about being honest and transparent and direct, I think they're correlated. I think you get the message. And so the focusing question for you today is what's on your mind? What's going on in your world right now that maybe you should be a bit more transparent around? Maybe you should address the elephant in the room. Maybe you should share what you're feeling or what you're thinking about as opposed to withholding it and hoping it works itself out. I'm not trying to create more controversy in your life. I'm not trying to create drama. I'm just saying it is worth taking a step back and evaluating if taking on that challenge today will actually play out more favorably for you in the long run versus the current path you're on. So that's the focusing question. That's what I want you thinking around on Independence Day. Make sure you're out there having fun, celebrating George Washington, the freedom of our nation, the Declaration of Independence, and all the great things that come with this holiday, with this day. Thank you so much for joining me today, the No Days Off Podcast. That's all we have. Really appreciate y'all. Just remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.