How's business?

Have you noticed that whenever you ask someone "how's business?", the answer is always "great"? Business is always great ... for everyone, all the time. Like the famous poker game from my uni days when everyone was up at the end of the night, it just doesn't add up.

Anyone who spoke to me early in the year knows that I am not a believer in always being great. We'd had a tough end to last year and were facing some challenges. And that's what I told people who asked.

We talk about being authentic in business, but that's meaningless if you are only authentic when things are going well. It also gives you massive credibility if you can say when you're up against it. It gives much more power to everything else you say. And the next time you see someone and you do say business is great, they might even believe you.

By all means see the glass as half full. But let's keep it real.