Gossip is Costly, Literally!

Excerpt from a Blog by Bob Burg


…Speaking gossip has physical manifestations. They include, but are not limited to, a guilty conscience, lack of trust from others, loss of friendship, loss of business, a weakening of family relationships and much more. Renowned speaker and author, Zig Ziglar (have you read his newest book, written with proud son Tom Ziglar entitled Born to Win? It’s awesome!), writes the following, excerpted from an outstanding article of his. In this instance, he’s addressing only the “listening” of gossip…

“I am absolutely convinced, no doubt about it, that the listener has more to do with the gossiping than the speaker because if you don’t listen, you’re not going to have the guy or gal talking to you. They just aren’t. When you move with purpose, people will step aside and let you go.


“I will absolutely guarantee you, you will save a minimum of an hour a day in two-minute, three-minute, five-minute things. An hour a day is five hours per week is 250 hours per year. That is six weeks of your life that you’ve wasted and six weeks of combination time that you have wasted with the people who were giving the gossip to you. What could you do with six extra weeks every year? You focus on the issue at hand.”


I believe that what Zig is saying is that the physical manifestation of participating in gossip is a loss of productivity. And, when you don’t have productivity in your life, you don’t have accomplishment, in any of the ways that are important, be they physical, spiritual, mental, emotional, social or financial.


Six weeks a year of productive time is wasted by participating in gossip, and not even by speaking it!


Now, that is a sobering thought, isn’t it?


http://www.burg.com/blog/