Perhaps the finest businessman that I have ever known in my life was an old partner of mine by the name of Mike Lopes.  Mike’s middle name could easily have been “Ziplip” because he almost never let you or anyone else know what he was thinking.  This is good not only from the standpoint of “curbing one’s tongue,” but he was just as penurious with the written word as well.  

I once asked Mike what the secret to his uncanny ability to “hold his water” might be.  Of course, he said nothing.
 
But I do know that his father was highly ranked in the Central Intelligence Agency with 99% of his motivation towards the end of his career being to outlive Fidel.  For a talent like Mike’s, I would have to spend 30 years in the CIA.  But somehow, I doubt that they would consider a hot headed, non-tongue-holding entrepreneur like myself.  

While on the subject of saying too much, one of my gripes these days is email.  I very seldom use it for a number of reasons.  First, because every word that one types in an email is permanently etched somewhere.  As my Grandfather used to say, “Don’t ever put in writing anything that you don’t expect to end up on the front page of the New York Times.”  I have learned to, and at a minimum, keep my emails as short as possible while practicing abstinence altogether in almost all cases.
 
In the old days, one would write a letter.  Back then the process was to then put that letter in your desk drawer for at least a 72-hour period.  Today, an email is composed, written, and dispatched to literally hundreds of people in just three or four minutes.  Not a lot of time to purge one’s mind of hateful thoughts, is it?
 
Also, there is the issue of interpretation.  I know that the written word is said to be more precise than its spoken counterpart.  But I can show you email after email of written words that confuse at best, and confabulate in most cases.  (And here, I am speaking primarily of punctuation!)
 
Over the years, I have learned to surround myself with “readers.”  Individuals tasked with the responsibility for reviewing and criticizing my own writing before it is printed.  Unfortunately, there is no such provision for the spoken word.
 
So keep this in mind the next time you are sending out emails.  Of course, if you don’t believe me, just ask my old partner Mike.