HYPE

Ten years ago, at the inaugural of a training workshop, my colleague trainer was presented as having conducted over 500 training programs. However, he was shocked to note that I was described as a trainer who had conducted only 300 workshops. In the tea break, he pulled up the organizers for attributing lesser programs to me, despite being senior as well as more active than him.

I led my friend away and told him that the person introducing me was quoting from information provided by me. Still bewildered, he queried, ‘how is it possible?’ Calmly I suggested that maybe his figures were wrong. In the evening we sat down and realized that he had conducted lesser than 60 training programs. His statistics was obviously hyped up.

So often we indulge in publicising or promoting ourselves through extravagant, inflated or misleading claims. Over a period of time, we start believing the hype that we ourselves have generated. Eventually we start describing the hype as fact. But the biggest casualty of such hype is our own mind that succumbs to mistaken beliefs.

Beliefs based on self-generated hype delude our discerning skills and put us on shaky ground. Sadly, hype is increasingly used to stand out in a world driven by media frenzy. But to be better at rising up we must ensure that the ground we stand on is firm and real. Otherwise we cheat others, as well as ourselves, by succumbing to the attitude of deceit born of falsehoods.

When we shun fruits that chemicals have turned ripe...
How can we BE BETTER by resorting to fraudulent hype?

- Pravin K. Sabnis