WHAT’S BETTER THAN BEING RIGHT? A LIFE THAT WORKS
UPGRADE THE LENS SHAPING YOUR LEGACY
3-Minute Read
Ever been so right you ended up miserable?
Two stubborn creatures meet on a narrow path, each convinced they’re right. Neither moves. Dr. Seuss called them the Zax. They stood there for years, locked in stalemate, while the world built highways and cities around their frozen argument.
The Zax are a children’s story, but they’re also a mirror. How many leaders, families, or founders do you know still locked in the same battle of who’s right and who’s wrong? At work, in politics, even around the dinner table, the invisible contest is always running. We’re steeped in it from birth—gold stars for right answers, ridicule for wrong ones.
No wonder the survival brain clings to being right at all costs.
But obsession with right and wrong doesn’t create better results. It narrows possibility, corrodes relationships, and blinds us to what would actually work. BlackBerry’s founders were right until they weren’t, and their empire collapsed. You can win the argument and lose the business. You can be right and end up miserable.
This week in The Grip, we’re presenting an upgraded lens for your life: workability. It’s a model for mastery that makes right vs. wrong obsolete.
Where in business or home are you stuck right now? Workability will set you free.
Let’s dive in.
a new lens for mastery
Making Others Wrong
The “who’s right, who’s wrong” game predates us all. It’s wired into culture and reinforced from before we can speak. To be right is to belong, to be safe. To be wrong is to risk rejection, ridicule, or physical pain. No wonder our survival brain defends against wrongness at all costs.
And the favorite tactic? Make the other person wrong first. We see it at home, in boardrooms, even on the highway. My way of loading the dishwasher is the “right” way. My business strategy is the “right” one. My driving style is the “right” conduct for the road. Your way? Wrong. This is the survival brain at work. It feels natural, but it quietly sabotages results.
Here’s the paradox: you can’t be effective with anything you’re making wrong—yourself or others. Making something wrong blinds you to what it would take to make things work.
History is full of proof. Take BlackBerry’s co-founders. Convinced they were right, they dismissed the iPhone as a fad and shut down employees pushing for innovation. The result? A company that once ruled its market collapsed. BlackBerry didn’t lose to Apple; it lost to its own insistence on being right rather than creating what worked.
Being right has nothing to do with creating workability in your life. It only shrinks your field of vision.
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Making Life Work
Buckminster Fuller once said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Workability is the new model. It makes right vs. wrong an unnecessary relic, much like online streaming rendered Blockbuster irrelevant. Workability is a whole new context for creating more of what you want in life.
When you stop making others wrong, you start to notice what’s actually happening, rather than being caught up in your disempowered story of it. You get curious about what’s working and what’s not, and that keeps your survival brain chill. Curiosity isn’t threatening to the survival brain, so you stay resourceful and creative. The lens of workability gives you options you wouldn’t have without it.
The shift to workability turns conflict into clarity:
At home, it helps you see what strengthens or strains connection.
In business, it reveals what drives results versus what drains them.
In leadership, it replaces blame with responsibility, opening space for scale.
To practice, ask yourself:
If nothing is wrong here, what’s happening?
What’s working? What isn’t?
What’s the impact of this choice or behavior?
Is this aligned with what I want? What I’m committed to?
What’s missing, that if present, would make a difference?
What will I create next?
These questions change the conversation from judgment to generative action. They don’t just resolve problems; they open space for new possibility. And that new possibility starts inside you. Take note of your internal experience—tension vs. ease, resentment vs. compassion, angst vs. peace—when you focus on workability rather than right vs. wrong each time you practice.
“Workability gives you options you wouldn’t have without it.”
My client Elise was stunned by what happened when she started practicing workability beyond just her business. For years, she and her ex-husband had locked horns over co-parenting their daughter; an endless tug-of-war over who was right and who was wrong. Every exchange drained time, energy, and peace of mind.
But the moment Elise stopped making her ex wrong, everything shifted. The tension broke. Both of them relaxed. For the first time since their divorce a decade earlier, they stopped fighting and started building solutions together.
The impact was bigger than their parenting. With the weight of that battle gone, Elise had the freedom and energy to not only expand her current business, but to successfully launch a new one as well.
Don’t take my word for it. Test it. Suspend the reflex to label right or wrong and look instead for what works. Notice what opens up—solutions you couldn’t see before, conversations that move forward instead of stall, relationships that regain ease.
Workability isn’t the “right” stance. It’s simply the most useful one I’ve found. For visionary leaders and creators, it’s the gateway to outcomes that matter: clarity, impact, and the freedom to build more than enough.
Keep creating.
key takeaways
Being right blinds leaders to possibility and progress.
Workability shifts conflict into clarity, unlocking options and creativity.
Upgrading your lens transforms relationships, business, and legacy.
May you prosper in every way!
Becky & TPL Team
52 Maxims of Conscious Choosing To Create the Deeply Satisfying Life You Desire.