I like words. I like to use words. I like to string words together to make a statement. I like making a statement that others find appealing. Despite that weak opening, I promise that to be true. I’m just a little off my game these days. But the point is I tend to think I am much more profound than I am. I have come to realize that is a precariously annoying trait to possess.

Here’s what I have learned. Insight without experience comes across as pompous and un-relatable. It is our experiences that connect us. Words without experience remain words. Meaningless, un-relatable words. No connection is made. This particular person can be classified as a pompous know nothing.

However, too much experience and forcing a connection with every thing said can swing the pendulum of connection the other way and have the same result. This person becomes the annoying pompous know it all.

In the end, use words to connect but make sure they have meaning. But you also know when not to use words and do the listening. Words with experience – from both the hearer and the sayer – become authority and form a connection. That is the goal of communication. That is the art of not coming across as a pompous blowhard. A delicate balance to master.