The strongest person in the room is usually the one who can say “I was wrong” without flinching.

Admitting an error is expensive only if your standing depends on never making one. Someone who is genuinely solid can say it flatly, move on, and lose nothing, because their sense of themselves was never resting on being right this time. Everybody else has to defend, reframe, or go quiet and hope it passes. The flinch is the tell, not the mistake.

Practice it somewhere low stakes this week, on something small enough that nothing rides on it. Say the three words plainly and then carry on talking, without the long explanation of why you thought what you thought. It gets easier startlingly fast.