I needed the services of a company that belonged to one of the most popular resource persons in my country at the time. When you heard this person talk about business, customer service, and so on, you were bound to fall in love; very eloquent and knowledgeable.

When I got to the company, I was greeted with very horrible attention or attendance; arguably the worse I have ever witnessed. How I was received was so contrary to all the great advice and guidance this person had been giving to others.

Much later – through some very interesting coincidental events – I got to know that for a long time the company this person owned and was in charge of its management, was having a huge dept with a bank – there is nothing wrong with taking a loan from the bank for a worthwhile purpose – but was struggling to pay back.

Again, this is not strange; it happens, and can happen to anyone – myself inclusive – and that should be noted. Except that, this person particularly exhibited or exuded such level of knowledge, confidence, and eloquence that were all contrary to the incidences cited. Not once would you think – not even for a moment – that this person also could be facing difficulties of those sorts.

For emphasis, this is not to say that if you owe, or that if your company is in debt, you should be gloomy or depressed and lose your confidence or hide. No! The point is that not all that glitters is gold. And that the positions we take on people and organisations, and the conclusions we draw about them could be erroneous or misleading. You can never know for certain what an organisation or a person’s true circumstances are just by what you see, read, or hear. Either that God is in the details, or that the devil is in the details; often the devil is in the details.

Recently in a public admonition, a friend showered profuse praises on a particular company, citing it as a model or an example people should emulate. I happened to personally know the owner of the company, and quite a lot about the company. I laughed! Because if this friend knew what I know about the owner and the company, there was no way this friend was going to shower that kind of praises on the company. That company is not truly worth emulating; unless all we care about is making huge profits!

There is always more to what meets the eyes and ears.

One of the days, I met a very long queue when I entered the bank. This bank had refurbished the building, and the banking hall was sparkling (all branded and brightly good looking) but everybody was complaining because the service was somewhat awful! So, what was the queue about? Their system was down; I was told. While waiting, a lot of the customers got agitated, and one customer could not help himself but to remark: “Anaa mo kaa sɛ aha fɛ na yɛn b’ɛwhɛ anaa?” To wit: “Do you think we are here to admire the beauty of this place?” Just a few months later, the bank was suddenly and forcibly taken over by the government one morning without prior alert. Without that, customers were soon not going have access to funds; apparently the bank was on “life-support” and we the customers had no clue! Indeed, with all that imposing new look, we naturally and logically assumed – and were confident – that the bank was doing very well.

Another bank, that had similarly rebranded also collapsed around the same time. Apparently, they were all facing liquidity challenges but – to court the confidence, admiration, and continual patronage of the unsuspecting public – had chosen to significantly spruce up their visual appearances. Very good optics; imposing appearances! Maybe that was a good move, perhaps per the advice of expert consultants, and per applicable business theory and practice. Or maybe that was a bad move in the face of pragmatism. None of that matters here; my interest here is to draw your attention to the fact that constantly you are being influenced – and indeed manipulated a lot of the times – by information that people – especially marketers – have taken great effort and invested lots of resources to put in front of you. In addition to those they have similarly carefully chosen to hide from you. Some are subliminal.