I think we all probably know a person who talks a good game. Not game in the sense of pick-up, but game as in general life experience. These are the type of people who always get my bull shit sensor ringing at full alarm mode. There is just something that isn’t quite right about what they say versus what they do. They tell you they can do xx or yy, but when it comes time to follow through on their promises, they head for the hills. There’s always an excuse as to why now is just not a good time for them.
Back when I was at the University, we had a couple of older guys who were former members of our fraternity. They had come back to school to embark on new career paths. The two guys couldn’t have been more different. One had been a fighter pilot in the air force. He was a less is more kind of guy. Confident and competent would be how I would describe him. The other guy was a slick, a talker, a shyster salesman. He talked fast and he played loose with the truth. His primary goal while back at school was to hit on coeds and get laid. I suppose you could say he was successful in a quantity over quality kind of way.
Eventually shyster guy played fast and loose one too many times making promises to provide…well let’s call it some entertainment. No follow through. As a result he was unceremoniously booted out and told not to return. The fighter pilot never made such mistakes and the door was always open to him.
We had a guy come into our business a few years ago. Talked a good game, knew all the right people, but something wasn’t right. My boss at the time and I went to lunch after a meeting with this guy. My boss asked me what I thought of the guy. I had too words, Too Slick. My boss had the same feeling, and wanted to see what my instincts were about the guy. We got back to the office and started checking around. Turns out the guy was in fact a bit of a con man.
What is it that sets off my bull shit alarm? Pondering this question it dawned on me what the number one indicator is for me. It boils down to the title of this post, Too good to be true. When all I hear are successes, and none of the failures, none of the mistakes, none of the self-reflection on what could have been done better or differently, that’s when I get suspicious. When things are too rosy, too good, and too much of a sure thing, I start looking for the exit. I’m not interested. There’s always a catch.
