Quote Originally Posted by slapout9 View Post
This is nonsense! There is always a motive. You may not understand it, but it is there. It answers the question who benefits.
Agreed, Slap.

If you do not look at motives you will always be reactive, serving as a news reporter or a historian. And as for the latter, I always considered motives in writing history; that is one of the joys of contemporary history. You can talk to the participants versus looking at diaries, letters, and official records (which are never complete).

This also goes straight to Rule #2: They have an agenda in everything they do with you. That is, what is their motive in their interactions with you? If you do not ask that simple question, you cannot forecast where their motives (or their relationship with you) will take you next--or how you can steer the direction it takes.

Best

Tom