The Richly or Poorly Show
Show Transcript
shdawson-20260120.mp3
Episode 01/20/2026
01/20/2026
Hello! Welcome to The Richly or Poorly Show!
My name is Dr. Stephen Dawson, and I am your show host.
Thank you for joining me.
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The show's motto is unmistakable: RICHLY IS GOODLY!
Please consider how you define the term good as we journey through life together in your pursuit of defining the term richly in your life.
I spoke of the terms arrogance, humility, and forgiveness four weeks ago. Today, we will look at the three terms and apply them to all we have covered so far. I will also present the first aspect of The Truth. Finally, I will share a personal story to connect all that I share with you today.
All definitions presented here on the show are resident in the public domain as public knowledge, so there is nothing proprietary contained within these definitions.
I urge you to review the definitions presented in the previous episodes as you consider the three terms I present to you now.
The term arrogance is a singular term. It is a noun. A noun states an attribute of a person, place, thing, or idea. Arrogance is the offensive display of superiority or self-importance.
The term humility is a plural term. It is a noun. Humility is a modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance.
The term forgiveness is a plural term. It is a noun. Forgiveness is either the act of forgiving; forgive, or the state of being forgiven.
The term forgive is a singular term. It is a verb. A verb is the expression of an action, state, or a relationship between two things. Forgive is to give up all claims on account of either a debt or obligation.
The first principle I have found as paramount, undeniable, and non-negotiable to living life more richly...
is...
Understand Your Data Lifecycle
The Truth has many aspects, but The Truth exists as a whole. It is a matter of how we view The Truth.
The first aspect of The Truth is presented in two parts:
FIRST PART:
Arrogance Precedes Anger
SECOND PART:
Anger Precedes Violence
I will now present a personal story without spending time today to explain the construct of the first aspect of The Truth. I decided, after much consideration, to deliver the contextualization of the first aspect of The Truth to you in this manner, as it is how I learned the first aspect of The Truth.
Now, the personal story to connect all of the material I present today.
The story is a sad one, but it ended in a good way. It took 35 years for the ending to arrive, but I am glad the ending arrived and that the ending is a good one.
The circumstances I share with you now are not specific, by intent, to protect the identity of those who suffered abuse along with me.
Decades ago, about 300 people and I were the subject of abuse. We were abused by authority figures. We were the recipients of violence by authority figures, preceded by being the recipients of anger by authority figures, preceded by being the recipients of arrogance by authority figures.
I cannot say this is a new combination. Slavery, discrimination, and oppression are replete in history. Replete is spelled R-E-P-L-E-T-E. Please take action to look up this term either now or in your free time.
I was working for a global organization during this abuse experience. The arrogance was daily from the abusive authority figures. The anger that came with the arrogance of the abusive authority figures occurred frequently. The violence that came from the abusive authority figures occurred intermittently.
So, context. My 300 coworkers and I won awards twice over the years as a group for being the best in the entire global organization for the work we performed. We were quite good at performing the work we did for the organization. We had earned notoriety within the global organization for our work deliveries.
The arrogance was almost any example you can imagine. The anger was a loud outburst, the throwing of objects, and the ripping apart of personal belongings. The violence was bruises, bloodiness, some broken bones, and three coworkers who died over five months from the abusive authority figures.
Several dozen of us decided to work together to look out for one another when the abusive authority figures would demonstrate either arrogance, anger, or violence to any of us.
The day came when a friend of mine in this group who decided to work together in common protection was faced with a choice. My friend either did what a specific abusive authority figure demanded of them to do, or they would die at the hands of the abusive authority figure. The demand by the specific authority figure was in breach of all rules established by the global organization. I reached a point where that was enough from the abusive authority figures. Four of us, of the several dozen of us who decided to work together to look out for one another when the abusive authority figures acted against any of us, discussed the situation. We agreed we would *all* do what the specific abusive authority figure required of our friend, and then trap the specific authority figure with an ultimatum. They either stopped their abuse, or they will be reported for punishment.
The nature of the abuse carried out by several specific authority figures was reported in the past when three coworkers died over five months. Those in higher authority took some corrective action to stop abuse from continuing, but not enough corrective action.
Well, our plan worked. However, it only worked for three months. The specific authority figure was caught performing abuse on those beyond our group of several dozen who decided to work together to look out for one another when the abusive authority figures would demonstrate either arrogance, anger, or violence to any of us. The specific authority figure did the unimaginable. They included the four of us who did what the specific abusive authority figure demanded of us three months earlier to try to negotiate their way out of punishment.
So, the global organization questioned the four of us about events of three months earlier. We all told the same story. The matter embarrassed the global organization. The events were in the national news at the time. The global organization decided to wash their proverbial hands of the matter as a way to save their public image. We were all terminated from our work and not paid our wages or benefits. It was sad, humiliating, and difficult to experience. It was a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for each of us at the time, and the inability to get work elsewhere for a long time due to prior work history.
Now, the good ending to the story.
35 years later, I had a friend from those days contact me. He thanked me for doing what we did to help the bigger picture. He was not one of the four, and he remained in the global organization after the four of us exited. He said things were much better after the four of us took the fall for protecting our friend. A few weeks later, more people from those days 35 years earlier contacted me with similar messages.
I expressed humility to each of them. I shared that what we did then was the right thing to do based on a shared worldview and ethics to prove the profession of our shared worldview as a demonstration of the morality held by the four of us who did not believe abuse should ever occur, let alone continue.
Looking back, I have considered those events deeply many times. I do wish we would have been able to find a third option. Option 1, do what was demanded of us. Option 2, our friend dies at the hands of an abuser. Oh, how life would have been different if we could have found a third option to use in helping us not be abused.
How about you? I am confident we all have experienced some form of abuse. I am also confident we have all experienced some form of arrogance, anger, or violence.
I do not share this story to brag to you in any way. I share it to help contextualize for you how humility is the way to avoid the harm of arrogance. It was humbling to be abused, but being abused does not justify in my mind my becoming an abuser.
How about you? How can you avoid arrogance, anger, and violence in your life?
We are going to consider this question in the coming weeks. Next week, we will consider how forgiveness helped me walk through the 35 years of my life between the abuse events I received from authority figures and the thanks events I experienced from my coworkers.
Well, that's it for today.
RICHLY IS GOODLY!
Please consider all you have heard from me today.
I hope you are excited about how you can apply the material I present to you on the show to your life, so you can live your life more richly than you have ever known!
Thank you for joining me for this episode of The Richly or Poorly Show!
I have enjoyed presenting to you today.
Until the next episode, I hope you will be safe and join me next week.
Until then.
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