Kindness over Rightness

This past week had it's ups and downs, mostly UPS!  But there was this one instance where it was DOOOWN!  I had a situation come up in which miscommunication occurred and an appointment was not met.  When I called the man that didn't show up, he was rude to me and not helpful.  I, being the worrier and freak that I am, called Zach trying not to sound panicked.  Zach said he was going to call in a favor.  He did and the appointment got rescheduled for that afternoon, even though I was told it wasn't possible. 

Zach asked me to meet the guy at the home even though the home owner would be there.  "Oh great, he is feeding me to the lion!"  This guy, though he has never met me, is always mean to me.  Why, I don't know?!?  Goodness, I was being forced to face the mean devil!  On the way there I gave myself a "pregame speech" because anyone who knows me, knows I don't do well with confrontation.  I knew that I had to be the bigger person and, I knew that I had to have a smile on my face the entire time.  I had to kill the devil with kindness no matter how hard.  I was praying that my nervous/awkward laugh wouldn't come out [it's terrible]. 

To make matters worse, I had to sit in my car and wait on the man for like 30 minutes!  He finally comes and I get out to introduce myself.  It went a little something like this:

ME: "Hey _____, I am Candace.  It's nice to finally meet you." 
Mean Man: "Hey Candace."  [straight face]
ME: "I am sorry for the confusion today and I really appreciate you coming out here."
Mean Man: ....[silence, walks right by me and doesn't acknowledge my apology]

The moral of this story, to me, is that even when being the bigger person, you may not get the outcome you want.  I thought that being the bigger person and apologizing to this rude man would make the situation better.  It didn't, he was still rude.  Which begs the question, at what expense do you pay to prove a point?  For him, he is losing business so, it's an expensive price to pay.  I think in business and in life you should always do the right thing.  Being right is nice, but doing the right thing is better [for everyone]. 

Here's to always being nice and always doing the right thing!