"I was telling the truth. I feel like we got that point across"
About this Quote
It is the kind of sentence that sounds humble until you hear the corporate bass note underneath it. “I was telling the truth” is a claim to moral high ground, but the follow-up reveals the real priority: not truth as an ethical endpoint, but truth as a deliverable. “I feel like we got that point across” shifts the center of gravity from facts to persuasion, from what happened to whether the audience accepted the frame.
That phrasing is pure executive dialect. “Got that point across” implies a room with skeptics, lawyers, regulators, or reporters; an environment where communication is a contest and credibility is a currency that can be spent, defended, or replenished. The truth here is not an intimate confession. It’s a strategic asset deployed to stabilize a narrative. Even “I feel like” is doing work: it softens the certainty just enough to sound conversational, while still signaling confidence that the message landed.
Barksdale’s business-world context matters because corporate truth often arrives bundled with optics. The line carries the subtext of damage control: we were under suspicion, we asserted our integrity, and the audience seems to have moved on. It also hints at a pragmatic view of accountability. If the goal is to “get the point across,” then being right is only half the battle; the other half is ensuring the market, the board, or the public believes you. The sentence isn’t about transparency. It’s about winning the credibility cycle before it closes.
That phrasing is pure executive dialect. “Got that point across” implies a room with skeptics, lawyers, regulators, or reporters; an environment where communication is a contest and credibility is a currency that can be spent, defended, or replenished. The truth here is not an intimate confession. It’s a strategic asset deployed to stabilize a narrative. Even “I feel like” is doing work: it softens the certainty just enough to sound conversational, while still signaling confidence that the message landed.
Barksdale’s business-world context matters because corporate truth often arrives bundled with optics. The line carries the subtext of damage control: we were under suspicion, we asserted our integrity, and the audience seems to have moved on. It also hints at a pragmatic view of accountability. If the goal is to “get the point across,” then being right is only half the battle; the other half is ensuring the market, the board, or the public believes you. The sentence isn’t about transparency. It’s about winning the credibility cycle before it closes.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
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