December 27, 2004
Lying
You lie for a living.
You’re not a bad person, not really, but telling the truth at your current company tends to get people fired.
And you can’t afford to be fired. You’re thirty seven, you’ve got three kids, you’ve got a big house to pay for, your wife would leave you within nanoseconds if the cashflow ever dried up, and it’s been well over over a decade since a cute, random girl in the street looked at you with anything even faintly resembling a sparkle in her eye.
Society only needs you because they need the product your company makes. Lose the job and you are no longer needed.
Without your job you’re just a mere stain.
So lying equals survival.
You have to lie because you have no other ideas about how not to be killed. How not to lose everything.
Lying replaced ideas long ago. Lying replaced great sex long ago. Lying relaced your marriage long ago. Lying replaced joy long ago.
Your lies became the painless cancer.
Yes, I’ve read your resume. Very impressive.
Look, I already said I’d get back to you next week.
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This TrueTalk Stuff Might Catch On!
Hugh’s talking about “lying.” Simple fact is, lying is a key element of what Barnett would call the prevailing “rule set” in corporate cultures. That’s why we called ourselves, “TrueTalk.” Many of us are trying to re-write those rules after
Well 40 actually, but with three kids. And once a year or so ago my oldest, now 5, said ‘Daddy, all commercials are just lies, aren’t they?‘
Kind of puts what we all do in perspective.
But.. and here’s the but of the matter … does it have to be this way? Do we have to lie to and on behalf of our clients?
Or am I just being naive?
Words of One Syllable Dept.
gapingvoid: Lying
You lie for a living.
I wasn’t limiting this to just advertising, btw
And, yes, it has to be this way. A few nutjobs like me or Doc Searls may say otherwise, but we’re the freak-a-zoid minority.
You’re not being naive, David…but it’s damned hard to do. We’ve been working with our clients for the last decade to try to establish the kinds of environments in which what we call “TrueTalk” can flourish.
Our experience? Can’t cajole people into it, can’t bribe them into it, can’t threaten them into it…you can only help them see the writing on the wall and use that vision to create value through the kind of agile, innovative thinking that these environments can produce.
That, and to tap into that well of feeling we all have after a day of corporate lying.
That was one of the main reasons for starting my own company. When we started out we made the decision that we would not lie to our customers, whatever happened.
That, and not having to answer to anybody but myself and my partner, is making me less money than I used to make but is also keeping me sane, happy and married.
Ouch.
Everyone worries about losing their job; not being able to find another one. But life can’t be this bad.…
I think you’ve been watching one too many episodes of It’s a Wonderful Life (and grasping the less than saturnine message Capra intended to convey).
When you define yourself and sense of purpose by an outside force, you SHOULD meet reality — that you are only as important as you want to be ( i.e. self-definition ). All acts should contribute to cultivating happiness, not validation.
Even philanthropic acts in relation to self are only as good as they make you feel. People are afraid of the concept that maybe they are just here, another one of thousands upon thousands of living organisms — Better make the best of it.
Dare! Find another job where you think there is more truth.
Go log trees, do anything worthwhile.
You have the choice because it’s YOUR life.
Whoa. Happy f**king holidays, eh?
You’re damned right this is about more than the world of advertising – or work, or anything else. Living in the truth requires a level of stamina most people aren’t prepared to muster, not to mention resourcefulness or even awareness: we do a pretty rotten job of raising our kids to recognize the truth, much less to live in it.
Of course, my truth is not your truth, which is part of the problem. In the case you illustrated, our Man in Advertising is actually living his truth, that truth being the lie that these things are all still worth working for, that they’re at all responsible for his happiness.
And Roman, while you’re right about having a choice, I’m mighty skeptical about that not/worthwhile list. There is no job or not-job with more or less “truth”; there is only the truth inherent in awareness. And *that*, my friend, is where the work comes in.
Whoa ! Brilliant.
Truth is Context plus Perception. It depends on the situation and the person recognising it and is therefore continuously variable.
Reality is only what is measurable and therefore depends on the instrument and system of units you use. It still needs interpretation.
I do know what you mean, though. Well, actually, no I don’t.
I scrolled down a little bit on the sight. This quotation is the best advice I’ve read on the internet:
Your plan for getting your work out there has to be as original as the actual work, perhaps even more so. The work has to create a totally new market. There’s no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.
Couldn’t do it — lie for my job: would rather starve.
How can these people feel who have made lying their God? how sad for society that people are feeling this and are imprisoned by this ‘having to lie burden’!
Let’s leave these lies behind and move on to shining truths that in the end will provide a far better mental health to us all.
Lying, Exagerating, Economy with the Truth
Do you lie?
By definition, Truth that is situational isn’t Truth, it’s rationalization.
Jesus was a copy writer He spoke in allegories and symbols and grand ideals, not in rote “facts” or recountings of step-by-step actions or the listing of material features. He was a copywriter, but He still spoke Truth, just as Hugh is trying to speak Truth through little comics on the back of business cards. Great copy writers ONLY speak in Truth. If you can’t speak that way, then that’s the fault of your own ignorance and reflects the shallow state of your own mind and soul, not lack in your clients’ products.
i ca’t remember the last lie i told…
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393310728/104 – 6824411-5015930?v=glance
That’s more like it Hugh!!!! Happy New Year.
Fabricating the Facts
Earlier in the year I asked
Words of One Syllable Dept.
gapingvoid: Lying
You lie for a living.
You’re not a bad person, not really, but telling the truth at your current company tends to get people fired.
And you can’t afford to be fired. You’re thirty seven, you’ve got three kids, …