Why would an expert need help?

Last night, hanging out at my favorite local watering hole, I overheard two guys talking about dating. Perfect opportunity for a wing girl. Unfortunately, they weren't pleased with my, or a woman's, perspective. I showed them my book, subtitled "A Man's Guide to Dating, by a Woman," yet their reaction was arrogantly charged.

I let them flip through the book, to which other people have laughed out loud reading, and let them alone, continuing the conversation with the person I was with--incidentally, my boyfriend. Though I didn't pay attention to what they said to each other, I noticed that neither of them laughed. Glancing over, I could see them sneering and rolling eyes. Clearly, two guys who didn't "need" a dating guide.

Though the two guys weren't ugly-looking, their attitudes were the biggest turnoff any woman would see. Go figure, there were none around them.

I let them peruse the book as long as they wanted until one of them discourteously tossed the book back at me sliding it across the sticky bartop. Nice.

If you were new and green at a job, you wouldn't act arrogantly as if you knew everything. You wouldn't shun the advice of people who had been there longer or were good at what they did. Why should a person have an arrogant attitude if his or her dating life sucked? These guys at the bar were clearly disgusted by their dating lives, yet behaved like "experts." Yet even a true expert doesn't have a pass to behave like an asshole.

Nobody who is successful with what he or she does got success without someone else's help. With dating, that help can come about in a number of different ways. For me, someone had to show me how arrogant I was in order for me to stop behaving so with a date. Someone else had to show me to stop being bossy. Another person taught me to be less rough (I'm a tomboy) and be gentle when appropriate.

At one point of the evening, my boyfriend went outside for a smoke. Then one of the guys asked what happened to my "date."

I replied, "That's my boyfriend."

"I know," he said.

No, he didn't. If he knew that was my boyfriend, why did he say "date" and not "boyfriend?" Granted, my boyfriend and I were having a date, just as we do almost every night. Yet the audacity of this guy prevented him from being honest to himself: His dating life sucks and he's too prideful to say it. Instead he complains and casts blame on women.

When my boyfriend came back, he did his usual thing of squeezing my right trapezius, then leaning in for a kiss. How disgusting. The guys got up and moved.

Even an expert in any field is not beyond the help or suggestion of other people. No one person can know or understand everything. So, even if your dating life is going great, be open to feedback and to others' perspective. Doing so will at least widen your horizons and might give you insight you didn't perceive before.