The Triple Filter Test – Not Just Network Marketing

I’m sure someone in your life told you at least once "If you can’t say something nice about someone, don’t say anything at all."  Right? 

A good friend of mine on Facebook, Matt Geib, shared this on his wall a week or so ago and I just had to share it here you with JUST IN CASE you are not friends with Matt YET!

In ancient Greece, scholar and intellectual, Dr. Socrates was
reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day an acquaintance
met the great philosopher and said,
…
"Do you know what I just heard about one of your friends?"

"Hold on a minute," Dr. Socrates replied. "Before telling me
anything I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the
Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?" asked the man.

"That’s right," Dr. Socrates continued.

"Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have
you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and wanted to
tell it to you"

"All right," said Socrates. "So you don’t really know if it’s
true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of
goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend
something good?"

"No, on the contrary, it is bad "

"So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad
about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass
the test though, Because there’s one filter left: the filter of
usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to
be useful to me?"

"No, not really." Replied the man.

"Well," concluded Dr. Socrates, if what you want to tell me is
neither true, nor good, and nor even useful to me, why tell it to
me at all ."

– Author Unknown

Don’t engage in meaningless conversations about other people.  This isn’t just a good practice for Network Marketers, but a good practice for EVERY interaction. 

To YOUR Success
~Jennifer Fisher

Let’s Connect On Facebook

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