As Dostoevsky said, the most serious lie is the one made to oneself. As you keep making the same lie, one day, you end up believing in it. Then gradually, you will not be able to distinguish between illusion and reality. Most likely, reality wins in the end, and you will be called a lier.
That is what I sometimes observe in the industry where people work under high pressure to make something new, namely, researchers and entrepreneurs. In my understanding, here is how it happens:
You can run your business only when you manage to raise funds. To raise funds, you need to tell a vision and a story of the future to the funders. You know what kind of future scenarios are plausible, and what are impossibles. However, you are desperate to get going and thus need to impress the funders. When your counterparts are well-knowledged people (like investors who would do in-depth diligence or researchers in the same field), you are unlikely to take the risk. However, when your audience is not well-informed people, you might make a small lie. As you continue making the small lie, it snowballs gradually and becomes a big one in the end.
That is the reason why I think entrepreneurs and researchers should control their media exposures and public speech numbers. My company has strict control over it — we make sure that Gojo does not appear in media/public events more than 12 times a year. Besides, if you appear more than that, you might not be doing your job.
Why I am writing this? Due to some reasons, I will appear at a few events in September and October. When I read the list of questions addressed to me, I thought I shouldn’t appear at these events too often, due to the reasons mentioned above. I have been trying to restrain myself for the last decade, but I am still not in perfect shape.
