Jan
If you don’t have something nice to say . . .
Josh Cobden
“I’ve got two very expensive kids and a very expensive wife, and I’m building a 6,000-square-foot house in the country. But I don’t have any debt. The people who are in trouble are the people who can’t service their debt.”
Those are the, er, candid words of Brian Sutton, president, Cassels Brock Regulatory Consulting, appearing beneath a photo of him in pinstripes in a Report on Business Magazine feature called “How Did the Market Crash Affect You?” The feature, which runs in the magazine and in an online slide-show, includes photos and quotes from a range of people from pizza-makers to corporate executives who were interviewed in downtown Toronto on December 15, 2008.
Perhaps Mr. Sutton had some other, slightly less smug things to say in the interview, but who can blame the editor for putting such an incendiary quote in bold print? I have no idea of what Mr. Sutton thinks of this quote (let alone what his “expensive kids” and “very expensive wife” think . . . or his employees, or the clients who pay his invoices . . . ) but my guess is I’m not the only one wincing.
We always tell our clients, an interview is a risk-reward situation. Say something smart, insightful, pithy, nice, and you and your organization will be proud you did.
But do the opposite – even just once in an interview – and you could regret it. And not just today, thanks to the Internet. (See Nancy Evans’s recent entry). The golden rule? If you don’t want certain words attributed to you in the media, don’t say them to reporters.
Empathy is fast becoming a lost art in business.
[...] golden rule that my mother taught me at a young age (referencing Bambi every time she did): “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nuthin’ at all.” Blame her for my [...]