Be Unapologetic For Your Actions

The thing I disliked most about the Tiger Woods cheating scandal a few years ago was the public apologies Tiger made. He apologized to his brand sponsors, the PGA tour, fellow golfers, fans… Why?

The gist of what Tiger did, legally, was that he cheated on his wife — the only people involved who are owed apologies are the wife and kids. What does work have to do with it?

Principle-wise, it’s not like Tiger had a one-night, drunken slip-up. He was fucking a lot of women on a regular basis. Until he got caught, it appears that this was a normal activity for Tiger. All judgements aside, if that’s what you wanted to do, why even apologize? He obviously knew what he was doing while he was doing it. It’s not like some emotional action taken in a fit of rage or an instant of lost control.

I say all of that to say this: when you take conscious actions to achieve some end, whatever that end may be, don’t apologize for it. You discredit everything you just did the second you apologize for it, as if your actions were some mistake. Fuck that, you meant to do it — own the shit.

Your favorite famous person has probably done or said something (again, not meaning some insensitive tweet or a brief loss of control) that a segment of the population didn’t like. Did they express remorse for that? Hell no — if anything, they milked it. Polarizing the masses makes your fans love you even more, because now they’re part of an exclusive group of those who support you. It’s Us vs. Them now. Beyoncé told bitches to bow down. Floyd Mayweather is the most shit-talking-est athlete out there. Rihanna had a photo removed by Instagram and posted even more of the same ilk as a response. When politicians vote for legislation that some people don’t agree with, they don’t apologize — after all, you elected them to make decisions. If you don’t like it, vote differently next time.

Now, if Tiger needed to act like he was remorseful to save his endorsement money, I get that. But he apologized to the PGA — the company that puts together the golf tournaments that Tiger hashad been propping up for years. What were they gonna do to Tiger? Not a damn thing. If anything, the PGA would’ve benefitted from Tiger continuing to play at a high level on the heels of the scandal — everyone was watching. They had no rule or legal basis to do anything to Tiger. And again, he was apologizing for a personal situation that had become public. No laws were broken, no charges filed.

You won’t get far asking permission before you act. And you won’t get far from apologizing for doing what you meant to do.

Written By Dre Baldwin