Dear John, 

I'm writing you on a Saturday because I'm absolutely disgusted by the negativity poising our dialogue today. 

As a society, our default position is to focus on the things that divide us rather than the things we have in common. 

That must change. 

My 9-year-old son is crazy about martial arts.  He trains 6 days per week and this fall he will be competing in tournaments with other kids from around the United States. 

Each day when we go to the school where he trains I sit next to a gentleman who wears campaign gear from the 2016 presidential campaign.  Some days he wears a hat. Some days it's a shirt. Some days it's both a hat and a shirt.  His candidate is not the candidate I supported in the election.  My candidate lost.

At the martial arts school we talk about our sons. We talk about school for the kids. We talk about life.  Our kids are friends. We have become friends.  During the past year I've come to know him and he is a good person. 

When we talk about politics, I want to understand WHY he feels the way he does. 

The surprising thing is: We have more in common, overall, then we have that divides us. 

Don't get me wrong, neither of us are going to change our political beliefs but we must be able to have a conversation. We must be civil with each other when we do - or the future for our kids will be bleak. 

As I type this email I know you and I may not agree on everything.  In fact, you may have differing beliefs from me on ways lawyers get new business.  But you open these emails and you listen and you try to understand where I'm coming from.

Thank you for that.

That's my message this Saturday morning.  

Thanks for listening. Thanks for welcoming a differing point of view. Thanks for trying to understand where my beliefs come from.

Experience has shown this is what our clients want from us.

Listen.

Try to understand. 

Disagree without being nasty.

That's something we must teach future generations or the world we live in will be polarized and we will all be worse off.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Warm regards,

Dave Lorenzo

P.S.  The event I'm hosting on September 14, 2018 has a few seats left (I moved it to a bigger facility due to the demand). You can find the details here:  Sales Acceleration Workshop

I value and appreciate the relationship we have.

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