Rumors......

So, recently there was a rumor about me that I punched a guy while at a club. My first response was: WHAT!? REALLY!? WHO WOULD BE DUMB ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THAT?? Evidently, more people than I thought. Nonetheless, this is a perfect example of why it is important to have quality friends, upon hearing the rumor, they immediately told me about it so that I could protect my good name. Seeing as how I'm a PR professional, killing this rumor was easy. However, throughout this process I learned something very valuable about rumors:

If you want to kill the rumor, expose the motive.

Every rumor has a motive, and you can usually decipher the motive by finding out who started the rumor (hint, they are usually the person spreading the rumor with the most veracity). Rumors are what weak people use to discredit those whom they wish to hurt. The strong (like myself) don't need to resort to rumors because we realize that everyone has enough true statements about themselves to destroy them with. Why make something up when you don't have to? That and once you are exposed for spreading a false rumor, you end up looking like an idiot.

This rumor in particular was being used as a smoke screen. A feeble attempt to distract from the charlie foxtrot (all my military buddies will get that, if you don't, email me) that is their life. I can't begrudge them that. Everyone wants to be interesting and important, but not everyone is. I suggest that if this applies to you, you just deal with it, if you can't you'll probably end up doing something that might temporarily make you look more important or interesting than you are but eventually it will catch up to you. No matter how many times you stir it, your crap will end up floating to the top and everyone will smell it.