There's a lot of guides on how to get along to get along. Make a friend and you win influence. Make enemies and you can alienate all the right people. This is not one of those guides.

Lemme let you in on one of ol' Don's neatest tricks: proximal knowledge. Proximal, here, meaning to the center of things, basal, core. Knowledge, here, meaning talking points. As it happens, and as we all know but don't really think about, experts are dangerous people. By their name, we trust them, and by their name, they know more than we do on whatever subject they're an expert on. On whatever subject they're an expert. This is human nature. As we fear the unknown, we love confidence, and a word spoken truthfully and without hesitation speaks to our desire to believe. If someone else knows it, whatever it is, then by God, we know it through them.

So speak freely, even when you're wrong. The more to-the-point and cocksure you come across, the more right you are. A good fact wrapped in an anecdote, designed to charm, is hard to doubt even when you know better, because what if they the speaker know better? That's an egg no one wants on their face. So trust me and appreciate the tip.

I've got your back, buddy.