After the fall, comes the steep climb back.
True for children of all ages. Just ask ’em. For better or worse, they haven’t learned limitations and caution.
The older we get, the more wary most of us become.
We’ve been singed and aren’t eager to repeat it. Besides, we’ve accumulated more and hence have more to lose.
It’s the difference between big risk & big rewards versus slow & steady. The first might end in a crushing fall, but the second will end not far from where you start.
Think Steve Jobs, who re-imagined the computer, music, and animation industries. He’d be at the top of anyone’s list of visionaries and risk-takers.
Or businessman Mark Cuban, known for his audacity, who stares brashly out of a magazine cover beside the headline No Guts, No Glory. He’s also the guy who counseled against investing in stock index funds that match the market because that’s not the way to get rich.
Or Warren Buffett, one of the world’s wealthiest people and the most successful stock picker of the last half-century by a wide margin. He recognizes others may not share his investing acumen. So in setting up a family trust, he instructed that it be invested 95% in an S&P 500 index fund, with the remaining 5% in U.S. Treasury bonds.
We all love a great success story. The more dramatic, the better. It’s in our DNA.
What’s unspoken is that for everyone who succeeds, millions try and fail. No one knows their names, or cares.
The nexus with Crisis & Reputation Management usually follows a fall from grace. How quickly friends scatter and colleagues profess they saw it coming. “It was so obvious,” they say. At least in hindsight.
The challenge is restoring your reputation. How well you succeed depends on how steep and far the climb back is.
For a deeper glimpse into our world, see our book on Amazon, A Lawyer’s Guide to Crisis PR: Protecting Your Clients In & From the Media.
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You can reach Roger Gillott and Eden Gillott directly at 310-396-8696.
Gillott Communications is a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that specializes in high-stakes Crisis & Reputation Management with more than 50 years of expertise in strategic communications, corporate public relations, and working with the media.
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