February 28, 2023 | Read Online

Embellishing Vs. Lying

While the facts may be unpleasant, changing them is wrong and often fatal.

The stars were aligning.

Ozy — a new digital media company with a charismatic CEO and wide interest in its website and YouTube videos — was set to receive a $40 million investment from Goldman Sachs that could launch it to new heights.

But in the video conference to finalize the deal, some bizarre shenanigans reportedly occurred.

YouTube’s head of unscripted programming allegedly said he was running late due to technical trouble, so the meeting was switched from Zoom to a traditional conference call, according to The New York Times.

Then, on that call, the YouTube executive’s voice appeared to be digitally altered. When the Goldman Sachs team reached out to YouTube after to follow up, YouTube said its executive wasn’t on the call at all — and its security team launched an investigation into what was really going on, according to the newspaper.

Within days, Ozy CEO Carlos Watson reportedly acknowledged YouTube wasn’t actually on the call and issued a desperate mea culpa to Goldman and YouTube citing a “mental-health crisis” involving Ozy’s COO that caused him to resort to chicanery to try to finalize the deal, The Times reported.

Last week, Watson was arrested by the FBI for what federal prosecutors said was a widespread scheme “to defraud potential investors, potential acquirers, lenders and potential investors.” He pleaded not guilty in court.

So what’s the relevance to us as coaches, executives, teachers and parents?

The case of Ozy seems to be a critical snapshot into what so many of us as leaders must balance in our efforts to persuade recruits, convince prospective clients, win over a skeptical audience: Embellishing vs. Lying.

Embellishing:

-Exaggerating a claim (i.e. “We have the best fans in the nation.")
-Putting forward some vague details (i.e. “We have six prospective investors.” Might be true, but four of them want to invest well below what you’re looking for).
-Overemphasizing positives (i.e. “We brought in $2 million last year.” Sure, but you lost $3 million).

Lying:

-Blatantly disregarding provable facts (i.e. “We’ve sold out every game for three straight years.”)
-Intentionally deceiving with ill intent. (i.e. “You won’t be charged for this upgrade.” Several additional fees are added.)
-Completely changing reality. (i.e. We typically let our employees leave for the day by 3 p.m." This happened once on New Year's Eve).

The point is that while there may be slight tolerance for mild puffery or an occasional re-framing of the circumstances, doing this chronically — or egregiously disregarding the truth — crosses a line in any industry.

While the facts may be unpleasant, changing them altogether almost always begets major additional problems.

We can recover from a misstep, a prospect we miss out on, an opportunity we may have squandered in the short term.

But blatant mistruths and mistreatment of others almost always have long-term, fatal repercussions.

And once the cable goes out, the service very rarely gets restored.

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