There’s wisdom in demonstration over explanation. If you’re looking to get your way, sometimes action is the best argument.

A heckler once interrupted Nikita Khrushchev in the midst of a speech in which he was denouncing his predecessor Joseph Stalin as a war criminal.

The heckler yelled “you were a colleague of Stalin’s! Why didn’t you stop him yourself, then?”

Pretending as though he could not see who had spoken, Khrushchev angrily barked “Who said that?”.

Nobody in the crowd moved. Nobody spoke.  ”Now you know why I didn’t stop him” replied Khrushchev, quietly.

Instead of arguing the point, Khrushchev simply made the crowd FEEL the reality he had lived.  The demonstration was far more impactful than even the best laid argument could have been.

Is this indirect route always appropriate? when is it best to press your point directly?

I don’t think Tiger cheats on his wife because he wants something. What he wants is to be seen as something.

ON CHEATING:

He’s “TIGERWOODS”, he could have just about any woman he wants… and he chose THOSE women?

No, he had to become TIGERWOODS the billion-dollar brand to be able to get those women. Or so he thought.

That’s the size of the power differential that was necessary for him to feel relaxed and confident … to believe that a woman actually liked him.

Lets be honest: Eldrick Woods, the man not the billion-dollar brand, is a bit of a dork.  You know it. He knows it..  and that is a big part of why he cheated.

If it took a billion dollars to get Elin interested in him, how much is it going to take to keep her interested in him, at the same intensity?  It’s impossible.  As TIGERWOODS and Elin’s relationship grew over years, he felt himself become regular old Eldrick Woods to her.  In his eyes: a huge problem.

WE ARE WHAT WE DO, NOT WHAT WE SAY:

Tiger didn’t make a mistake.  He didn’t stray – you can’t ‘stray’ multiple times over several years.  That’s who he is: a cheater.

EFFECTIVE CHANGE:

I’m keen to be clear about my opinion of Tiger & the point of this note. Frankly, I’m impressed by him and admire the way he’s conducting himself now, in much the same way I’ve admired how he conducted himself in his past athletic endeavours.   In his recent press release, he said “…I need to focus my attention on being a better husband, father and person…“.

That’s right on the money – he’s not attempting to refrain from a particular behaviour so much as he’s tearing down who he was and is rebuilding.  Rather than refraining from doing X (mistresses), he’s becoming a man who would rather do Y (good husband).

It sounds to me like his family is why.