Just Shut. Your Big. Mouth.

You don't have to say something all the time.

The Travelling Quack (detail), by Tom Merry, 1889 (Wellcome Collection - CC BY 4.0)

“I will begin to speak when I have that to say which had not better be unsaid.” — Cato the Younger

You don’t have to have something to say constantly.

You don’t always need to be on.

Sometimes, the people around you simply might not want to hear from you.

And other times, the power of silence can convey something even more powerful.

Raising kids to have a healthy sense of self-confidence and autonomy means giving them a chance to speak their minds.

But when they get mouthy or have some wisecrack at every turn, it’s distracting and disrespectful.

Not unlike public personalities who seem to thrive on the combination of chaos and attention-seeking that result in more drama for the rest of us.

It’s distracting. And frankly, in certain business arrangements, it can derail entire deal structures. There’s a reason for lockups and quiet periods.

And it takes a certain level of maturity to apply restraint and self-co…