Hanging Out With Negative People

Let’s say for a second, you were standing in line at your favourite Canadian coffee shop, or in the grocery store or awaiting your turn to pay for your gas fill-up and you saw a newspaper headline on the front page which read: “Canada’s Recession is Over” or “Canada Likely Among First To Recover From Recession.” Would you purchase a copy of that paper to bring home with you?

A headline like that would seem like good news wouldn’t it? You would perhaps want to know more wouldn’t you? At the very least, you would be a little curious. I mean, you’ve been bombarded with sky-is-falling headlines for some months now. Aren’t you in the mood for a little good news?

Well, a headline that appeared in the newspaper this past weekend was the following: “Canada Likely Among First To Recover From Recession.” But that headline was not featured on the front page. It was buried as a three-paragraph story in the bottom left-hand corner of page 2 in the third section of the newspaper.

Here’s why I say that this story was buried. Pages with even numbers (2, 4, 6, etc.) are less-read than odd-numbered pages. Because of how we turn the pages, our eyes focus on the right page first and left page second. That’s why book chapters always start on the right-hand pages. Right-hand pages in the newspaper are prime real-estate: that is to say these are the pages where advertisers would love to be. Right-hand pages get read more than left-hand pages. The chances of readers seeing your ad, if you’re an advertiser, are better on the right page. Left page placement gets a smaller return. But here was the news story, in the bottom-left corner of page 2 in the third section – buried.

I’ll summarize the story: Canada, along with Australia and the UK are expected to be among the first of the advanced economies to emerge from recession and return to normal economic growth. According to Goldman Sachs Global Economics, Canada, Australia and the UK should return to the historical average numbers within the next year. Europe and the USA won’t likely get there for another year after that.

This story would have made a wonderful front-page story. People who have been awaiting a little good news about the economy would have embraced their newspapers. The advertisers who advertised in this edition of the paper would have been advertising to people with a positive mindset. But sadly, that didn’t happen. The newspaper decided that a good news story about the economy wasn’t enough to sell the newspaper that day so they lead with a story of how Calgary’s ring road (a route around the city) may hit $1.5B for a small portion for the road to be built.

Oh, so you know, I got the paper for free at a store that was giving them away. There’s a sign of the economic times huh? They have to give the papers away to get people to read them. Well, I guess sometimes you do get what you pay for.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Be careful who you allow your informational influences to be. Remember that the media is hurting right now. Traditional newspapers are going out of business as more people get their news on-line. Newspapers and television stations are having tough times. The traditional media are desperately clinging to models that clearly aren’t working anymore. And they are still doing their news the old way: “if it bleeds it leads” headlines.

The great thing is that, because you have access to so many news outlets these days, you’re smarter than that. Don’t allow yourself to get sucked into the pandemonium vortex of over-the-top headlines and scaremongering. If you want to see good news and some glimmers of hope, you’ll probably have to find another place to get that from - but they are out there.

The truth is, you wouldn’t surround yourself with a very vocal group of whiners, moaners and complainers on a daily basis would you? So why would you allow the same sort of negative influences into your life by what you read? You have the choice of who your friends are. You have the choice of who you listen to too. Make that choice wisely. You have the choice of whether you develop a strong Leadership Attitude or whether you resign yourself to simply being "sheeple" (people who follow like sheep).

Worldwide State Of Chasing Balloons

The recession is over … or it has caught the swine flu?

A month ago, virtually every page in the front section of the newspaper had a story on the “recession.” The first ten minutes of a national TV news broadcast featured stories on the “recession.” Recession. Recession. Recession. The sky is falling. Hold onto your money. Doom and gloom warnings.

Now, if you pick up a newspaper today, you will have to search for the stories on the recession. It seems our financial future is not important as the few hundred people in Canada and USA who have contracted swine flu. In fact, most cases of swine flu are relatively mild. Only a few people ever develop the dangerous symptoms. And they will number a few dozen at the most.

But where is the media? They’re sitting in briefings from Medical Officers because covering some new “tragedy” that will end up seriously affecting a few dozen people is sexier than reading financial reports and talking with economists.

In fact, listening to one Medical Officer describe swine flu symptoms, he described them as relatively mild and that the “pandemic” that the media keeps eluding to, is well under control by the qualified medical organizations whose job it is to contain infectious outbreaks like this.

“Wash your hands and prevent catching the flu.” That’s the advice to containing the spreading of swine flu. It’s a very simple solution. No drugs. No hoarding of Tamiflu. No locking yourselves in bomb shelters to wait out the deadly disease. Just wash your hands regularly and you’ll be doing plenty to protect yourself.

So why all the fuss? Because apparently the media spent a little too long in front of the TV watching Will Smith in I Am Legend. The bigger the media attempts to make this story, the more they are saying that our medical leaders are inept – all in an effort to boost ratings and readership. They are reporting a story that they can’t possibly understand without the medical officers “dumbing it down” for them (you can’t fully comprehend the complexities of the virus without some sort of medical or scientific training). Then, the media simply takes the sexy pieces from the briefings and report only that.

I was a member of the media for eighteen years. I worked with reporters whose job it is to get an angle on a story that no one else has – no matter how marginal it may be. They spend more time preening in front of the mirror making sure not a single strand of hair is out of place and that they look fabulous before the cameras roll than they do getting themselves up to speed on what they’re reporting on. If a medical briefing takes place at 7:00 pm, a newspaper reporter will have to return to the office, pour through her notes, find an angle to the story, write it and submit it to an editor before 10:00 pm. In the two hours or so that the reporter has to write the story, there is little time to research, understand the complexities and face the editor.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: I don’t think that media understands just how intelligent we are about what's going on. If the media can be distracted from their work uncovering a drastic so-called “economic disaster” by a disease that can be prevented by washing your hands, then are they like little kids chasing balloons?

Let’s not panic just yet. Let’s keep our heads and our wits about us. Let’s develop our own individual personal leadership qualities and keep relaxed. We can handle these events of our lives. We have up to now. Let's instead let the media go mad. They seem to be worrying plenty for all of us anyway.

Car Wrecks, Grieving Mothers And The Economy

You’ve seen it happen when a tragedy befalls a family. You see the media clamoring and jockeying for position to try to get an exclusive interview with the affected family members. Family members are in tears trying desperately to remain coherent and composed while facing the barrage of cameras and microphones shoved in their faces.

I get no pleasure from watching events like this. I don’t understand how the media can be so calloused as to think that someone who is suffering a personal tragedy would make for good TV. But they do it anyway because in order to boost ratings, the media feels compelled to put the most sensational, gut-wrenching and over-the-top footage on their newscasts. We, the public, love to watch a car-wreck. Events like this are sadly, just like that.

Shoving a camera in the face of a grieving mother is not factual – it’s sensational. Interviewing the investigating police officers of a crime is factual.

At the same time, we look to that same media for the facts of what is happening to our economy. If they will go through great lengths to make a personal tragedy sensational, wouldn’t it figure that they would do the same with every story – including the state of our economy.

There are many experts who believe that we are turning the corner in the economy right now. There are just as many who believe that we’re headed for more trouble. Those who think more trouble is ahead seem to get more than their fair share of the headlines. Those who think that our economy is on the upswing usually get buried in the story (for balance so they tell us). If you read only the headline and the first few paragraphs of a newspaper story, you get the idea that things are going to get worse.

In no less than twenty stories in various newspapers across the country in the past few weeks, I have found buried inside the dastardly-headlined stories, some hope, some optimism and some good news. But the headline rarely suggests that. My friend and business growth expert, Marty Park, made an interesting suggestion: start telling your friends that the recession is over and claim you heard it on the news. Watch how people react.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: Let’s not forget that the media is a business. After being a member of the media for eighteen years, I can tell you with no reservation that the media’s job is to sell advertising. Ads are easier to sell for those with a bigger share of the market. In other words, a bigger audience means bigger dollars. Make the headline sensational. Make it loud. Make it brash. And make it appeal to the inherent “car-wreck watching” parts of us.

The awards for best photo don’t go to photojournalists who shoot beautiful sunsets. They go to those who shoot tragedy. Journalism awards don’t go to reporters who write good news stories. They go to investigative reporters who uncover a major plot. Documentary awards don’t normally go news crews who tell happy stories of companies succeeding during tough times. Those awards go to crews who bring down the big multi-nationals.

Before you think that what you read in newspapers, see on television and listen to on radio is gospel truth, think about what the individual reporters are trying to do (win awards) and what the media companies are trying to do (win awards and raise advertising revenues). Journalism is “supposed” to be fair and balanced – but that doesn’t mean that the headlines have to be.

It’s your own personal economy that’s really most important to you anyway. Your own personal economy is turning the corner if you whatever is necessary to make it turn the corner. For the most part, what’s happening in the rest of the country or the world won’t have much effect on you personally if you look after your own personal economy (household, personal finances, revenue streams, etc.). Let’s keep our eyes on the ball and stop getting so spooked by organizations trying to profit from our difficulty.