If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.

This past week, I have been reading about various principles from the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie. Principle number 3 stated, “If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.” Meaning, that when mistakes are made, don’t deny them or try to make excuses, simply admit it and apologize or explain. This was one of my favorite readings because this is such a true statement. From my experiences, apologies are one of the tools that work in almost any situation. When a mistake is made, or when someone is in the wrong, or even if someone needs to get out of a situation, an apology works great.

have experienced a situation where I made a huge mistake. I was unable to come into work for personal reasons and I really needed to find someone to cover my shift. Right before my shift started I found someone to cover however, I told her the wrong time! She showed up about an hour late and got into some trouble with the manager. I just felt so awful about this, I apologized greatly to the girl and called my manager and explained the situation as being my fault not hers. Apologizing quickly really minimized the consequences and because of it, my manager and my co-worker had no hard feelings.