Ever notice how when one person wins the lottery, it’s all over the news, making it seem like lots of people must be winning? Meanwhile, nobody talks about the millions that lost. It’s crickets on that side.
This happens in business data too. The one customer who raved about a product might get featured in every marketing report, while the thousands who left bad reviews get ignored. Focusing only on rare, flashy events creates a distorted picture, like assuming the lottery is a great investment strategy.
It works both ways, and media loves to blow negatives out of proportion, creating the same effect. You know that one freak accident that makes people avoid an activity entirely? Or when one unhappy customer goes viral? Suddenly, the whole company is “failing.” One bad quarter? “The economy is collapsing!”
Remember – one data point doesn’t make a trend. Always look at all the bits, the good and the bad. The boring together with the exciting. The yay-saying as well as the nay-saying.
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