I used to think the most important skill in business was expertise, knowing your industry inside out, understanding the nuances, having the best strategy, the right numbers, the clever angle.
That of course matters. Somehow.
But the longer I have been in the game, the more I have come to realise something a bit uncomfortable: most people are not evaluating you purely on skill but on how you make them feel.
I have sat in meetings where the best solution lost, because the person presenting it had made too many people feel small along the way.
I have literally seen careers stall because someone could not resist the urge to be "right" all the time.
I have seen deals break for the most ridiculous, human reason: the buyer simply did not like the seller!
This is the part nobody tells you when you are young and eager to impress.
They tell you to learn frameworks, master the tech, get the credentials, etc but NOBODY tells you to just be a f*cking pleasant human to work with!
I have recently read an old line allegedly by Emerson: "What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say".
Well, it plays every day in business.
There are a lot of smart people out there, but far fewer you actually want to work with for more than five minutes.
Every senior leader I have ever respected has told me a version of the same thing over the past two decades... usually in private, casually, almost as an afterthought:
"I just don't work with as*holes anymore. Life is too short."
All I can tell you, folks, is to always keep that in mind.