Reading

Telling someone they're wrong — with care — is an act of trust. Silence in the face of a bad idea isn't politeness. It's self-protection dressed as diplomacy.

Which is the opposite of what you'd expect. Trauma doesn't make you brave. It makes you careful. The businesses that thrived after were mostly the new ones — the ones with nothing to protect and therefore nothing to lose by trying things.

I've sat in enough rooms to believe this. The most confident voice is rarely the most informed one, but it usually wins. The real experts I've known are quieter and more conditional. They say 'it depends' a lot. They're also harder to follow in a presentation, which is a separate problem.