I’ve watched a few people crash in slow motion.
They built their platform on a version of themselves that wasn’t quite true. A little more certain than they were. A little more successful than the numbers showed. The audience came. Fast.
And then, as these things do, the truth came faster.
There’s a phrase I’ve heard in boardrooms: “any publicity is good publicity.” I’ve never believed it. Not even a little.
Attention is easy. I can say something inflammatory right now and watch the notifications stack up. But that’s not the kind of attention I want, and honestly, it’s not the kind you should want either.
I work with founders and executives every week who are tempted to over-promise. To bend the narrative. To lead with the best-case scenario as if it were the base case. The short-term gain is real. I won’t pretend it isn’t.
But here’s what I’ve seen on the other end: trust, once cracked, is brutally expensive to repair. Edelman’s research puts it plainly. Brands and leaders perceived as dishonest lose trust at three times the rate it took to build it.
Three times.
So when I hear someone say “well, at least people are talking about us,” I ask one question: what are they saying?
Attention is not adoration. It is not loyalty. It is not permission to lead.
Truth, told consistently over time, is the only foundation worth building on. The rest is noise with an expiration date.
