The Surprising Reasons You Should Always Accept the Breath Mint

A Hypothetical Situation That Makes a Much Bigger Lesson Easier to Understand

by Rod D. Martin
Inc. Magazine
January 7, 2016

You would be surprised how many people don’t accept a breath mint when it’s offered to them.

Maybe you’ve refused one yourself. You shouldn’t have.

If someone offers you a breath mint, they might just be being polite. If so, you may not want a mint just then, but it’s rarely polite or kind to turn down someone’s offered generosity.

But more likely, if they offered you a mint, you needed it. You just didn’t realize it.

It’s amazing how much, ahem, offense you can give without knowing it.

The first lesson of breath mints is that you should strive to pick up on the subtleties of life. People tell you things you need to know all the time: what it will take to close the sale, that they’re agitated, that they’re not feeling well, that you’re upsetting them in some way, that they’re crazy about you, all sorts of things. Experts tell us that 93% of communication is non-verbal – 55% body language and 38% tone of voice – while just 7% is verbal.

If you mis…