Business is where the truth lies

He was not lying, he would claim, it was just that the truth had not happened as of then.

In fact, the more entrepreneurs

I get to know the more I find a

blurring of the line between what a "normal" person might refer to as the truth and how an entrepreneur might interpret the same things. 

Bill Gates is a master of this with Microsoft product launches.

It is no surprise our children struggle with numbers. Word 2003 was packaged with the new version of Windows 95 that came out in 2002, a mere ten years after the launch.

No wonder they called the next one XP, presumably in the hope that we would not understand roman numerals.

I came to realise "massaging the truth" is not just endemic among entrepreneurs, it is at the absolute core of everything we do.

It seems to me there are three key stories every entrepreneur needs to master.

First, the vision; second, the marketing; and third, the reason why reality is so far away from the first two.

If you can master those, then the world is your oyster.

Since cavemen first exaggerated the size of the one that got away, homo sapiens have loved a good story.

It not only makes sense for entrepreneurs to fulfil this need, it is also what society demands.

Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Larry Ellison, Richard Branson - these are the entertainers of the 21st

century.

A computer on every desk? Space travel for the masses? A yacht the size of a city? These are the inspiring fables of the Capitalist religion.

Of course, as Enron and WorldCom found out, there is a time and place for these stories. And under oath in a courtroom is probably not it. Sometimes, repenting is in order.

But, perhaps, their problem was just that they were not thinking big enough. Perhaps, it is time for entrepreneurs to throw caution to the wind?

Look again at your vision, at your marketing; why not add another 0 to the end? Make it bigger? Faster? Shinier? 

If you're going to be wrong, you might as well be wrong in style. You are not lying, the truth just has not happened yet.

Your audience awaits, double your ambition!

Or perhaps, we are just lying to ourselves.