* Results are not typical

It occurred to me recently that many of the ads that I see on television these days talk about something great that can happen to you if only you will buy their product or service. The ads show people who have lost huge amounts of weight, made thousands of dollars, or accomplished other amazing feats*. Everyone is smiling and talking about how great life is now that they are thin, rich, or otherwise so much better off since they used the product or service*.

Images are flashing across the screen with subtle, and not so subtle, almost promises that if only you're fat, poor, or otherwise impoverished self would invest your money, that you, too, could have all of this!* It always amazes me that some movie star, with whom we have nothing in common when it comes to life style, can somehow entice us to spend our hard-earned money on a chance. This is especially funny when we see a star, who has been overweight more times than we can count, telling us how great this diet program is. Doesn't anyone stop to wonder about the fact that he or she is being paid huge amounts of money and is receiving huge amounts of support in order to recover his or her sveltness?

Someone else (a regular guy) is sitting in his Mercedes convertible telling you how is just started his business four months ago and he is already collecting $10,000 each month working only 9 hours per week.* Other testimonials reel across the screen including Mr. and Mrs. Ordinaire smiling as they stand in front of their new mansion that they bought with their first year's profits.*

Case after case in commercial after commercial entices us to follow these success stories with our investment. All the while the little asterisk at the bottom of the screen is telling us the truth - results are not typical. Does anyone stop to wonder about what typical means? The American Heritage dictionary defines typical as "exhibiting the qualities, traits, or characteristics that identify a kind, class, group, or category: a typical suburban community."

Consider the Pareto Principle (the 80/20 rule): 80% of the work will be done by 20% of the people; 80% of the alcohol in any given bar will be drunk by 20% of those present. Or, 80% of the wonderfulness of product being advertised will be experienced by only 20% of the people who buy it; and that is probably stretching things a lot.

Another way to look at this is that the little asterisk is screaming, "THIS WILL NOT BE YOU!!!"

If there is anything that is typical, it is the fact that the results are not typical. In the face of being virtually promised that we will not experience these results, we continue to take the chance. Perhaps the lottery has reinforced this for us. In America, we have an entreprenuerial spirit. We take chances. We love to have our dream machines polished and running. Someone eventually wins the $160,000,000 jackpot; and someone's life might be changed by reading this blog, but...*

*Results are not typical