shark scare, sales managers at waterfront resorts all over
the world find themselves drowning in questions from
potential guests. And not just questions but cancellations,
often large numbers of cancellations.
I'm a swimmer. And I speak at a lot of conferences and
conventions. I spend far more time than most people padding
around in the waters off one resort or another. So the recent
feeding frenzy--the media feeding frenzy--on shark attacks
made me paranoid enough to do some checking. As William
Burroughs said, "Paranoia is simply having all the facts."
Here are the facts, the reality of the situation, which
I offer gratis to hotel marketing and sales people
everywhere. No need to thank me. Just send me a fruit plate,
next time I'm booked into your resort.
Do people get killed by sharks? Of course, they do. No
one apparently has any idea how many billions of times
swimmers went into the ocean last year, but out of all of
those swimmers, sharks killed exactly 10 of then. Ten.
Worldwide. Even if all ten had been killed on the same beach
in the same day, if you happened to be swimming on that beach
sometime that day--assuming an average beach on an hot summer
day--there wouldn't be one chance in a hundred that you'd be
one of the chosen few. Even with your luck. But we're not
talking one day on one beach. We're talking all the days of
the year and all the beaches in the world. Ten people.
Perspective
Fifty thousand dollars is a fortune. Or is it? It's a
fortune for a second hand Yugo. It's dirt cheap for a brand
new Rolls Royce. Five gallons is a huge amount of dishwashing
detergent. Unless you were considering--or someone got you
considering--a 200 gallon drum. Then five gallons is barely a
starter order, a sample.
Perspective is everything. Great business leaders,
great marketers and great salespeople determine the
perspective--the context, the scale--in which both positives
and potential negatives are considered.
Truth: It's never about how big it is. It's about how
big it seems.
And framing your issues in the proper perspective is
what business communications is all about.
Worldwide last year, 10 people were killed by sharks.
In that same year, in New York City alone, 11,000 people were
bitten by humans. Worldwide, 150 people a year are killed by
coconuts falling out of trees. One hundred and fifty!
Coconuts are 15 times as deadly as sharks. And bathtubs and
showers are hundreds of times more deadly than coconuts. If
you really want to live dangerously, don't go swimming, take
a shower.
Forget Jaws. Remember Janet Leigh.