Transparency

Interesting news out of Beijing over the last 24 hours - it would seem that certain parts of the opening ceremonies were (*gasp*) "faked".

That's right - like a Milli Vanilli stage show, the beautiful little Chinese girl who sang the song... actually was lip synching a different girl's voice.

Now, China has justified this by saying that it's because it was a show, a spectacle - they wanted the best looking child with the best sounding voice - and apparently, such a person does not exist in one little girl under 10 years of age throughout China.

Honestly, this is so far off the blip of importance in the world, I'm not sure why it's making headlines - everybody knew that Britney and N'Sync were lip synching (and my apologies if you actually believed that the "microphone" that was in front of their mouths was actually picking anything up), but nobody cared because, damn, they put on a good show. What with all the dancing, pyrotechnics, props, choreography... hold on, isn't that the same thing as what China did to start the Olympics?

Maybe what's more important than the sleight of hand (or people's horribly misdirected priorities) is why they're upset.

Simple - they were misled.

If China had simply used the actual girl who sang the song in the stage show, found a different girl with a strong voice AND the looks they wanted... or, at the very least, acknowledged right up front that some of the show was pre-recorded, staged, not live... anything... instead of having it come out after the fact... well, then maybe we could have avoided this "scandal".

Or maybe not.

Regardless, the next time you find yourself coaching a customer on their diet, training regimen, party lifestyle, drinking, lethargy, lack of commitment or unwillingness to really step up... ask yourself how that same customer would feel if they knew the truth about YOU.

How much of your coaching is a stage show, and how much is real?

~Guy