It explains why he has no trouble speaking his mind.
Even on TV, in the social media age, he has remained his highly opinionated, vocal self. He has a dogmatic and often humorous take on everything. Never mind that he’s often wrong. He spouts off on so many subjects. Like a broken clock, he’s bound to be right at least twice a day. This ability to speak his mind has made him one of the most popular, entertaining and highly paid sports broadcasters.
When one of his comments triggers a tidal wave of outrage on the internet, it doesn’t bother him at all. Why is this?
Early on as an analyst, he realized something.
He said he realized no matter what he said, half of the people would hate him and half would agree. The ones who agreed would cheer him on, and the rest would be more convinced he was an idiot.
He came to the conclusion that you couldn’t change anyone’s mind or have a prayer of keeping everybody happy no matter what position you took on any subject. So the conclusion was obvious… Why should he care what people thought? Why should he say anything other than what he thought? Right or wrong?
There are going to be upset people either way.
At least there is a little respect for him being genuine and not a phony. He takes strength from the fact that he knows he’s entitled to his opinion just like anyone else. Just like the rest of us, he knows if his opinions aren’t that well thought out, there will be plenty of people to tell him why he’s wrong. Then, at least he’ll learn something. That’s a better approach than sitting around intimidated about ever saying something wrong.
Also, when you’re wrong, it’s no big deal to admit it and move on. One good thing about Charles is that he is humble enough to appreciate his position in life and he’s never too proud to say he was wrong. He doesn’t take himself seriously and doesn’t mind being on the wrong end of a joke.
Bottom line: learn from Charles. Be yourself. Be honest. Be true to yourself. There’s no reason to be timid about your beliefs, because there’s no way you can please everybody anyway.
