Don’t Tell Anyone

I don’t keep a lot of secrets. But sometimes I’ll tell a trusted friend something private.

Usually goes like this:

Me: My company just got an acquisition offer from Yahoo—but we’re still waiting to hear from Google. Can you believe it!

Friend: Wow, cool!

Three days later the story is repeated back to me by Bob. I call my friend.

Me: Dude, why’d you tell Bob?

Friend: I didn’t know it was a secret! And I hadn’t seen Bob in years but it came up in conversation! Sorry.

So now I always preface confidential information with, “Please don’t tell anyone.”

Invariably, the conversation now goes like this:

Me: My company just got an acquisition offer from Yahoo—but we’re still waiting to hear from Google. Can you believe it! Please don’t tell anyone, especially Bob.

Friend: Why would I tell anyone?! It would never come up and I don’t even know Bob!!

This is frustrating to me.

I know my friend won’t tell Bob this time. But I can think of 1,000 scenarios in which he might have, had I not told him it was private.

So instead of responding with, “Why would I tell anyone?!?”, just tell me:

I won’t tell anyone.