A speaker argues that winning arguments wastes energy you could spend actually learning. He describes students who sound smart in class but fail exams because they perform instead of study. Real success comes from building substance, not from looking clever.
Chapters
How can you win an argument and fail in life? I saw it happen in university. There are people who just, they come to class, before the lecturer is asking questions, they, ah, this one, and they are talking and they are doing like this. The exam will come, they will fail. They will fail. They have only prepared to look smart, not to be smart. What they know they know, the quality of what they know, is to sound smart in the comment section, is to sound smart in an argument. How can you win an argument and fail in life? You know better than everybody who is doing important things. The only problem is that you are doing less. The investment, the energy you're spending to sound like it, to look— just spend that energy to grow. Don't jump up, grow up. There are certain things, if your name is indeed witty, you not be the one talking about it. There are certain things that the fact that you can go online, call people this name, drag people soap, is a sign that you're already a failure and you're trying to make everybody come to your level. I say this to you, how we perceive you is your responsibility. If we perceive you as a good person, it's because you decided so. If we perceive you as an excellent person, you decided so. If we perceive you as a sensible person, you decided so. If we perceive you as a fellow make sense, it's your decision. If we perceive you as a careless person, it was your choice. If we perceive you as a wicked person, you made the decision. It is not God that decides how you are perceived. How you carry yourself is the way you'll be perceived. Don't prepare to win an argument, prepare to win a life.
