To calm a crisis, you must react quickly. But haste creates mistakes. These concepts aren’t contradictory. Rather, they’re a caution: Before you do or say anything, consider the consequences. How might someone…
Tag: perspective
Keep It Simple
Complexity doesn’t work. Especially when you’re trying to explain yourself. So keep it simple. Your message will be better understood — and it’ll be more persuasive. Simplicity sounds simple. But it…
Nothing to Lose?
Ready to roll the dice? Don’t believe it. No matter how bad things are now, they could be worse. (No Pollyanna or Dr. Pangloss here.) The more you see of life, the…
Case Study: Hotel Cybersecurity
The hackers are coming. How will you respond? What will you do when the hack hits your system? Earlier this week the payment system of upscale hotel operator HEI was hacked, compromising…
Fool Me Once…
Sin once, you may escape. Sin again, and you won’t. Generations came and went, but they endured. Oscar de la Renta. Ben Bradlee. Joan Rivers. Nelson Bunker Hunt. All were born in…
Top to Bottom
Watching media contortions — a sport for ex-journalists News media has always been stratified: Cream of the crop. Bottom of the barrel. Big in-between. Today there’s less cream and much more…
Savage Magic
First, define your audience. Convince them and you win. The British magazine The Economist is fond of phrases like “the savage magic of capitalism.” It’s also fond of describing itself as “Liberal”…
Jibber-Jabber
How to control media herd? Turn around the lead steer. You’re inundated by it every day. A flood of words, empty of meaning but designed to arouse emotions. Think of talking…
10,000 Hours
Don’t guess or make excuses. Just fix the problem. Now. Definition of an expert? “‘X’ is the unknown quantity. A spurt is a drip under pressure. Therefore, an expert is an unknown…
Affluence Made Me Do It
Rarely there’s so little to say that it’s best to say nothing. Justice for the super-rich is different from justice for the rest of us. Always has been. Always will be. They…