Tearing Down a Fort (Truby Tip about Pushing Buttons)


Last Updated on July 3, 2024 by Bill Truby

Discover how a childhood lesson about tearing down a fort to outsmart bullies can teach you to remove the triggers others use against you. Learn how taking control of the situation can neutralize conflict and empower your leadership approach.


Video Transcript

When I was about 10 years old, we lived by this rather large field.

And across the way there were houses. And on our side of the field there were houses. And there was this vast pasture in between.

Right in the middle of this pasture, there was a grove of trees.

And there was some lumber in those trees, and my friends and I built a fort.

Well apparently, there were some bullies that lived across that pasture, because the next morning when we came out to play, it was torn down.

And this became a daily practice. It didn’t take long to put the fort up. It was basically we did a bunch of lean-to boards and got inside. But every morning they would have taken it down.

So at the end of one day, I said to my friends “Let’s tear it down ourselves.”

They said “What?”. I said, “If we tear it down, they can’t.” And they saw the brilliance in it and they helped me tear it down. And the next morning it was already torn down.

We did what we would have normally had to do anyway – we put it back together.

And it taught me at that young age, that if you take away the buttons that other people push… there’s no button to push.


Bill Truby

Founder and President of Truby Achievements