November 9, 2007

Overstated or Understated

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I live in a part of Los Angeles which is just one town over from Malibu and just a few minutes from the beach. The terrible fires that raged in the last two weeks were devastating. People that we know were affected, homes that we drive by regularly are now gone, and the damage is purely incomprehensible. The smoke in our own home when the fires first broke out made it impossible to go outside and it felt like dusk because it was so dark right during the middle of the day.

When we watched the fires on television, the news cameras would pan the side of the mountain, the flames and the areas that were affected. On TV it did not seem too bad. It didn't seem to be that much devastation. I'm used to watching television news and maybe I'm a little jaded, but I think that television news frequently appears to exaggerate the circumstances. I can think of one example after the next when it rains in Los Angeles. Believe me, when it rains here, it rains hard. But the media will take a picture of a certain intersection that's flooding because their sewers are overloaded or because they have not been cleaned out and that intersection will just overrun with water. The impression that the media leaves with us is that the whole city of Los Angeles is somehow under siege - being flooded from the torrential rain.

But the exact opposite was true with the fires. With the fires, the media and the cameras did not appear to make the problem worse. When I drove through Malibu after the evacuation orders were lifted, I was shocked at the proportion of the devastation. Mountains were scorched for miles. Embers must have flown, in some cases, three quarters of a mile causing damage that hop scotched across this beautiful landscape. Enormous portions of this beautiful seaside city have been affected and it will take a couple of years for the vegetation to reorganize itself.

There's a business lesson here. The lesson is that sometimes people overstate and we become jaded. We become cynical. We tend to apply the judgments from the past into other circumstances and usually other circumstances are likewise exaggerated. But in some cases, like in the case of the fire, the reporter is unable to communicate the magnitude of the situation. So keep your guard up but don't be too cynical. Keep your eyes open for situations where the problem, the opportunity, or the situation is better than you expect with even more opportunity for you to grab onto than you first imagined.

About Joel G. Block

Well known in the business community, Joel Block is a best selling author, speaker, and business strategist. Frequently a principal in his transactions, Joel has raised tens of millions of equity dollars for his ventures, which have included real estate syndications and privately held businesses.

Joel’s career is highlighted by the launch of a financial publishing company which he grew nationwide and later sold to the Los Angeles Times. More recently, Joel works with scientists, engineers, technologists and others to help them optimize their entrepreneurial opportunities. Would you like to get a private phone consultation with Joel? Visit www.joelblock.com/capital for details.

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