Information, among other things, is a major factor on which we base our daily decisions, even though our emotions and mood on the day also play a significant role. However, information is essential.
They say that when we are excessively emotional, it is best to put a choice to sleep because the decisions we make under those conditions are rarely optimal.
One thing I’ve seen in our culture is the lack of attention or importance placed on information. Because the entire picture is rarely presented to you, we frequently make decisions based on a skewed view of events. I’m curious why.
Full information is one of the requirements for making a sensible decision. When a person obtains complete information about something, he or she is aware of the situation. However, because complete information about something is not always available, we are occasionally compelled to make decisions in the dark.
I completely understand the lack of complete information. What I don’t get is why people prefer to conceal information that is easily accessible if one is ready to provide it, and then expect others to make decisions based on a skewed picture.
The real estate industry is one of the fastest-growing in the country. Ads for flats, luxury or otherwise, promising potential buyers the pleasant and modern living that they deserve, have become a familiar sight in Addis Ababa. They offer all kinds of promises in order to entice customers.
Customers believe claims such as “a house that hasn’t been built will not be sold,” “a loan will be arranged,” “the building will be completed in so and so years,” “a title deed will be given over together with the key to the house,” and so on.
There was widespread suspicion a decade or two ago that real estate businesses accepted consumer money and then vanished without delivering the houses. But that skepticism appears to have shifted in recent years.
Even though we don’t hear much about real estate companies and their owners going out of business these days, the real estate industry still has a hard time giving a full picture of the properties they sell.
What fascinates me is that these companies would say and promise anything until they got their hands on their clients’ money, but once that was done, it was a done deal for them, and they didn’t bother to even justify their broken promises.
I’m curious as to why real estate corporations fail to recognize that their current clients, those who have paid and purchased today, are not and should not be their only consumers. What about more customers? What about in the long run? What about the company’s long-term viability?
What many businesses fail to recognize is that existing clients are the best form of promotion for them.
Existing consumers who have been duped by misleading promises and scant facts will almost certainly have negative things to say about such companies. Companies believe they can stay in business by concealing information and making misleading promises. It’s natural if things don’t go as planned for the companies.
Depreciation of the birr, inflation, government agencies, and other factors may stymie and delay these businesses. These are understandable. But concealing information, in my experience, always bites back at the concealer. The time may not be known right now, but it always comes back to bite you!
