Brooklyn Bridge – Want to Buy It?

Once more, savvy business titan Steve Gilbert shares some of his insights on business. In a 2008 commencement address at Wharton School, The 10 Biggest Business Myths & Gilbert’s Secret Rules of Business Success, Gilbert says:

“Now, I am going to give you the ten biggest business myths.  Things you hear, or, are told, that sound plausible, but just aren’t true.  Keep these on file, and send me $10 every time you hear one.  I will leave a Post Office Box address in Lichtenstein after the speech.”

That sounds like a real money maker to me.  I could leave my Paypal.com account, to be directed to a Cayman Islands bank, but I don’t think you’d fall for that, even though plenty of people fall for the doozies below, as pointed out by Gilbert:

1. You have more security here at Gigantabank than you do on your own.   Just not true.  One strategic shift, one downsizing, one reorganization, one boss with a bad hangover, and you are toast at Gigantabank.  You have no job security.  You just have less pay.

2. “You’re really smart!” When you are a buyer, every joke you tell is funny and every insight you have is brilliant.  Don’t try these jokes at home.  Most people see your position, not your fabulous personality and good looks.

3. “There is almost no risk to this”.  A good definition of risk is that more things will go wrong than can go wrong.  Nothing is without risk.  Your job is to find the risks, define them, see if you can contain them or live with them, given the return offered.   Nothing is riskless.

4. “This time it’s different”.   Not that I can tell.  The laws of supply and demand, risk and reward, greed and fear, have remained constant since men got up on two feet.   And I suspect it always will.

5. “It’s not about the money”.  When someone tells me this, I am then sure it is about the money.

6. “You can tell me”.  No, you can’t.  When someone entrusts you with confidential information, anyone you give it to won’t trust you to keep a secret.  And, they are likely to pass it on, no matter how sincere they seem at the time.   Keep your own counsel. As Ben Franklin said,  “three can keep a secret if two are dead.”

7. “We are Best-in-Breed”.  If dogs could talk, this would matter.  But who is going to tell you, “we are just a second-rate operation, please do business with us”?  Internally and externally, it is in the interest of everyone to assume they are the best and brightest.   Hopefully, you will be able to tell the difference.

8. “We have no politics here”.  This is true, but only if you have a lights-out, industrial clean room with robots.  If there are people involved, there will be politics. Even in the Bible, they just had Adam and Eve, they had politics.

9. “Everyone is doing it” This is the surest ticket to a custodial experience that I know.  Not only is everybody usually wrong, but they are probably treading on a fuzzy white line.   If everybody is doing it, you probably shouldn’t be.

10. “My word is my bond”. If your word is so good, why won’t you commit yourself to paper?  Because they don’t intend to keep their word, and don’t want a record, that’s why.

As Gilbert puts it, ” Now, armed with the secret rules for business success, go forth and prosper.”

We second that.  Go get ‘em.  And write home…. to us… and tell us your experiences.  Your comments help all of us light the way and see the path.