My father would tell me, as a kid, "God and 'me' make a majority." He would later come to regret imparting this advice.
I am a principled individual. I strongly believe in my values. More often than not, I have done what I think is right in spite of the majority opinion. More often than not, I ruined relationships because I felt the other party violated a sacred belief - my opinion.
I am trying to point to a specific incident where my principles got the better of me. There are so many. What I can say is that each occurrence was small, at the moment, they were of no consequence. During these frictions, people would just accuse me of being difficult for the sake of it. I never felt like I was wasting my time; I passionately advocated for my position. I was making the best arguments! Just, no one cared.
Similar to my post on expectations, I couldn't expect people to live by the same beliefs I had. Also, I realized that work was not an all-or-nothing experience. There may be times when I would need to do things that weren't aligned - and it was okay. To have a belief is right, to hold on to it in spite of the world is wrong.
Instead of advancing my worldview, I was closing others to working with me. Instead of doing things that I felt were meaningful, my causes got pushed to the side. Instead of building better and better relationships, I was losing them.
Over the last several years, I've worked to make a change within myself. To be able to step back, let life get ahead of me, and then react. To temper and ignite my passions at the right moments. To continually look for a balance. My efforts paid off - I recruited and led an impactful team of engaged leaders who do amazing things.
For others who struggle with being stubborn, let's face it - we're stubborn, I encourage you to try and see the world from another's view. Be empathetic. Take the step to imagine what would happen if things didn't go your way. Go further, imagine things successfully working out through someone else's idea. Then, when you can do that, review your values and decide if it's right. Unless you're doing harm to someone, I bet you'll be fine. I am.