I recently saw two men arguing about who got to use the urinal next.
As a result, neither got what he wanted, and neither could honestly say that his day got better.
The need to win every interaction, the inability to apologize, the short-term over the long-term–this isn’t a sign of strength, it’s a symptom of immaturity and weakness that almost always leads to suboptimal results.
If apologizing engages the network and makes it more likely that we can stay in sync, it pays for itself many times over.