CNET reported that for the fourth straight year, in 2014, the most popular computer passwords are “123456” and “password.” Runners-up included “letmein,” “baseball,” and “qwerty.”
I often tell my clients, family, and myself to always think in terms of “lowest common denominator.” You can’t depend on many people to do the right thing, think things through or even consider options.
A perfect example of this is an effort in the Washington State legislature to modify, i.e. ease, the rules on payday loans. Let’s face it, the original law was enacted to keep stupid people from damaging their lives (too much).
In my day-to-day world if somebody tells a business owner they will buy their business for a price that seems about twice what the generally accepted range indicates it should be, well, it sounds good but,
- Will they get financing?
- Will their advisor knock some sense in them?
- Or will the seller finally realize that the buyer has so little common sense that their business should not be entrusted to that person?
On the flip side, if a business buyer finds a company whose owner says they will sell it for a ridiculously low price that it seems like a steal, it probably is a steal, for the owner getting out before the roof collapses. If the new hire salesperson sounds too good to be true, as in, “Why would someone of his or her caliber work for this pay rate?” I can guarantee you they are all talk and no action, and no sales will be made.
Computer passwords, business buy-sell, business in general, and in our personal lives it behooves us to step back and ask, “does this make sense?”
“Fiction is the truth inside the lie.” Stephen King
