Who is Bill Cosby?

Is he America's funniest dad?

Perhaps he is a purveyor of fine puddings and delicious gelatin-based desserts? Or is he someone with decidedly more sinister secrets?

We don’t know the answer any more than you do, and we watch with resigned sadness as it plays out - we hope - to some kind of resolution. But this unfolding story illustrates a vital point, one we think is applicable to our personal lives, business lives, indeed to all of life, writ large.

Because the truth is, whether we’re talking about Bill Cosby, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton or Billy the Kid, we have to realize that a public persona, or any persona, tells only part of the story.

Lives are complex. That seems simplistic, but it’s actually a truth so profound that it’s worthwhile to frequently ponder all its implications.

Think of it this way — what person, other than yourself, knows you the best? It could be your spouse, your closest friend, or very possibly the church minister or bartender down the block. Whoever they are, and however well they may know you, we feel safe to pronounce: They don’t know you completely. We don’t accuse you of hiding some part of yourself, anymore than we accuse ourselves of the same (this phenomenon is entirely universal). It’s just that we’re all different people, in ways subtle and distinct, depending on circumstances and surroundings.

If this is a truth we can stipulate for people, can we not also apply it to organizations? It seems to us that the complexity must compound when we’re looking at larger pools of personalities.

So — was Enron all bad? Is the Humane Society all good? We’re not taking any stances here (we’re willing to flirt with controversy, but please excuse us from full-on macking)...we’re just posing questions.

Whatever feelings you might have about individuals, organizations, corporations, or even your friendly neighborhood brand-management experts it may behoove you to remember that those feelings were born of isolated experiences. You might remind yourself they probably only represent one small part of a very complex picture.

The C4:
1. One hundred percent good and one hundred percent evil are caricatures. They’re the stuff of comic books and not-very-convincing fiction.

2. Real life is more about subtleties of gray, and of complex ranges of motivation and action. Might not be as satisfying from a dramatic standpoint, but mundane human existence rarely is.

3. It’s well-nigh impossible, then, for any of us to completely, intimately know the personalities of others. We think this is inescapable on an individual basis, and even more so with large groups.

4. Impressions, feelings, even the things you’re sure you know about the people around you and the the businesses you work with might just be incomplete. We’re not saying your impressions aren't valid. They surely are. We’re just hoping you can recognize that other impressions and contrasting truths could be just as valid in their own right.

All That Glitters...

Here’s a cliché for you — perception is reality.

It’s a cliché that needs to be understood, and maybe feared, by every businessperson, politician, celebrity — every person — who seeks in any way to engage the public.

But here’s the thing about clichés: they lose their sting, they cease to impress, they become just so much background noise.

So let’s try coining new descriptors — non-clichéd versions of the same stark truth: Perception has consequences. Reality can break you.

Or maybe a real-time case study will be convincing enough. So please bear witness to the bruising of Goldman Sachs, and see what lessons you might draw — and what lessons GS is refusing to draw — about the power of perception.

What’s vital to understand is that, as of this moment, it’s nearly irrelevant whether GS brokers were truly snickering and calling their clients “muppets” while conspiring to wring every last dime from them. And it doesn’t much matter whether GS was an architect of the housing crisis, a sinister, greedy manipulator, or whether they were just along for the ride like the rest of us.

The truth of these things doesn’t really matter because the perception about them has already gelled. It’s solidified into reality.

Goldman Sachs never put much work into image rehabilitation, even as they were pilloried by Congress and paid out half a billion to settle a SEC fraud suit. They’ve remained wildly profitable so they evidently didn’t see the need. But this stance left them ill-prepared for the late-breaking revelations from Greg Smith, who resigned from the company quite publicly and railed in a New York Times op-ed about a culture of corruption and duplicity.

Goldman Sachs can deny and refute, but that’s irrelevant too. Their new reality has already arrived. They lost three-and-a-half percent of their market value in a little under two days.  

Or if you need a more direct, cliché-free accounting of the cost of perception: about $2.2 billion and rising.

The C4:

1. Goldman Sachs stands accused of profiteering at the expense of their clients and of society at large. A former London-based employee named Greg Smith recently started a firestorm by publicly indicting the company’s culture.
2. Goldman Sachs has weathered economic challenges well, remaining consistently profitable throughout the financial downturn.
3. The company has shown little awareness, maybe even less concern, about their worsening public image.
4. Perception is reality, and a poor public image erases market share. Always has, always will.