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[Alexandr Korol]

— If I always listen to you, always ask you questions, and only do exactly what
you say... is that good?
— That is victory, — they replied. — Victory!

What happened next? While waiting for the meeting with my employee,
I continued — right up until the very last moment — asking questions of my
inner voice. I wanted to be as prepared as possible, to account for
every provocative situation that might arise, and to know how to avoid
them so I wouldn’t fail this exam. Since I was forbidden from asking
the employee questions during the meeting, I decided to ask the voice
questions about him instead. And the voice told me nothing but the worst:
that this person had stolen a lot of money as far back as last year; that,
naturally, he hadn’t confessed to everything; that he had lied constantly
and done many bad things. The voice warned me that it would be painful if
I brought these topics up, and that I would snap and fail the exam. That was
the conversation we had.
Then, finally, the meeting took place — this happened very recently.
We met, and he sat across from me. We were both silent. I asked him why
he thought I had decided to meet with him. In his usual fashion, he replied,
“I don’t know.” Typical — why bother thinking or speculating when the most
convenient answer is just to say “I don’t know”? I said, “Okay.” Silence again.
Then I said:

— Look, don’t be afraid. I’m not going to ask you about everything you did
before. I don’t want to irritate myself or you. I’m not going to ask what
you’ve been doing this whole time you haven’t been working. Maybe you
were doing something bad, I don’t know. Let’s just do as I promised: talk
without conflict, without judgment. And the reason for my meeting with you
is simply that I realized I was wrong.

The employee stared at me in total shock: What did I mean? What? How could
that be? How could I be wrong? He was so shocked he actually looked even
more frightened. He couldn’t grasp the idea of me being wrong. Like, “How is
that even possible?” I told him... and even though he’s never read my books,
he’s somewhat aware of what drives me. I told him: