The Power of Hanging Up

The phone rang as I was in the middle of writing. I looked at the called ID, and it was my old buddy "Unknown".

Ninety five times out of one hundred, these are telemarketing calls. Even though I'm registered with the "do not call" list, I get one a day or so. About fifty percent of the time, I do not answer the phone and let the call go to voicemail (call spammers rarely leave messages).

A fair question would be why I bother to pick up half the time…?

Part of the fun of my life is that I never know what's coming into my life on a given day. I could get invited to speak somewhere, an interesting person may contact me for some coaching work, an HR person from a big company may need some DISC Reports — ya never know.

And every once in a while, those calls come in under the caller ID label, "Unknown".

So yesterday, when the phone rang with the "Unknown" label, I picked up. I heard the rustling on the other end, the other operators in the background — the tell-tale signs of a telemarketer. Even so, my curiosity got the better of me and I said hello…

"Mr. Rozell?"

"Yes…"

"This is so and so from the policeman's association. Did you hear about the officers who were killed…"

Click.

I did it. I hung up on the man. The man with the compelling story. The man doing "the good work" for the police. The man wanting me to give him some money. I hung up on him. Click. No goodbye. Not a word. No justification.  No apology.

Just a click of the button.

I usually listen to the spiel. I don't want to be rude. I let 'em down easy. Polite. Nice. But I don't really want to be in this conversation. I took measures to stop these calls. I really don't want to speak to you.

A simple truth. So I followed it.

And I must say, it felt great.

I think I'll try it again.