Being Sensible

One of the easiest things to do in life is to “be angry”. Somehow, for some people, being angry seems to be  far much easier than being happy.

There’s nothing wrong with being angry. In fact, there are times when we should be angry; when people lie to us, when someone abuses our rights, when someone forces us to do something that is against our belief, when people disrespect us, and so forth. But being angry is right when released in the right way too. Just like how there’s the right way to talk to people, there is also the right way to express our anger; with grace.

Last week I experienced a very very upsetting situation. My company was supposed to open a booth in one of the biggest music festival, but simply said, we got screwed up. Isn’t it “amazing” that after weeks of planning and completing 100% of the payment, they “forgot” about us and on the D-day, none of us could even get in. They never gave us ID passes, and no one seemed to be responsible for it. And this is after being in contact with the officials for weeks and also paying 100% upfront. It took a loooooong time before all of us could get in and prove to them that we deserve the booth we have paid for. Yada yada, I managed to meet the management, and everything was finally settled after a few hours. In total, we lost about 4 hours from our supposedly 8 operating-hours. That’s a tremendous loss if we were to calculate the cost per hour.

During the argument I had with the management, I really felt like releasing my disappointment and anger on Twitter. For a second, I thought that I would feel better if the world knows how I felt, or how bad their service were. But I didn’t. I expressed my anger in just the right portion, just to the one who was to blame. And after I finished talking (or being angry – to be exact), I inquired why this all could happen. After listening to their side of the story, I understood. What they had to deal with was even far worse. Basically their system crashed just a few days before the event. So it was that bad for them too. Eventhough they were still “wrong” for not giving us a smooth service and creating us tremendous loss, things were understandable. And I felt relieved that I didn’t publicly announce their mistake to the world.

You see..when you’re really angry at someone, try to keep it between just the two of you. You don’t have to take people down in front of everyone just because they made you crazily angry for that very minute. And you don’t have to embarass them like that. People make mistakes, and there are reasons for them. So listen to them first, then judge and evaluate. The moment you take it public, you are putting someone’s life at risk. Because you never know how one impulsive tweet or announcement can change a person’s life. Have the sense to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. Life’s not always about me, me and me.