Regret: Being ‘Too Judgmental at the Start’
Rory McIlroy
Many people can be guilty of being overly, negatively presumptive. Only a few of them regret it later and fewer still confess it out loud. But, some do eventually come forward to express dismay at what they communicated.
“…if I regret anything, it was probably being too judgmental at the start,” said Rory McIlroy — a professional golfer and winner of 17 U.S. tournaments and 4 major championships — about a hot dispute in the game of professional golf. Yet, this however is not a sports story.
It’s instead an examination of McIlroy’s communication, which is important, because it is important to ask if we are willing to notice when we are jumping to conclusions, blind to at least some of the facts and variables and stopping before communicating arrogantly.
McIlroy was triggered and felt that colleagues were not respecting the industry that had done good things — financial provision — for many of them and could still do it. He assumed the health and well-being of the company (pro golf), so to speak, was being threatened and he didn’t like what he interpreted as selfishness.
McIlroy didn’t like what he saw as disrespect for the profession and Professional Golfers Association and those who depend on it for livelihood. He didn’t want eyeballs and money going elsewhere — the LIV Tour.
The point here is that being angry is one thing, publicly expressing it in a manner that was uninformed and selfish in its own right, even if well intentioned, was an error by McIlroy.
He did come to the conclusion or was led to it by someone else, that he was not any hero for the game or the PGA and decided to see the conflict differently and communicate about his regret, publicly.
It wasn’t a total about-face by McIlroy yet he made room to acknowledge that he went too far too soon in his thinking and public comments. He learned he did not take everything he should have into account and didn’t respect different people’s aspirations and hunger to financially maximize their professional value with opportunities with the LIV that presented a higher probability to capitalize on their skills.
Regret, sometimes, is a good thing. It reminds us that we shouldn’t have acted in a manner in which we did. It shows us that we are intelligent and mature enough to recognize that we could have been better, should be better and want to be better.
McIlroy may not have wanted to publicly express what he finally did — or maybe he did — but he did do it and it’s a smarter look for him among his peers who might want what he doesn’t and might need to pursue different opportunities to improve their income in ways they otherwise can’t currently do.
