Yogababble is an attempt to smear Vaseline over the lens of truth, and often used by entrepreneurs to make their company, brand or products appear more compelling than they actually are. It enables founders to fog over the difference between truth and illusion and has become a viable formula for cheap capital — using visionary language to tickle our tribal senses and distract the public from the cold truth of numbers.
Yogababble statements aren’t just the errant missives of CEOs with God syndrome — it’s often codified into a company’s culture. At best, a company’s mission statement describes the purpose and value of its product in a clear, concise manner. However increasingly, these statements massively exaggerate the cosmic relevance of a firm, obscuring its actual product and means of generating revenue.
Best-selling author and business professor Scott Galloway isn’t afraid to hold the powerful accountable. Exclusively on CNN+
Let’s be clear, “entrepreneur” is a synonym for “salesperson,” and “salesperson” is the pedestrian term for “storyteller.” We entrepreneurs are all impostors who must deploy a fiction or story that captures imaginations and capital to pull the future forward and turn rhyme into reason.
No business I have started, at the moment of inception, made any sense — until it did. (Or didn’t.) This is not the same as lying. There’s a real distinction between an entrepreneur and a liar: Entrepreneurs believe their story will come true, while fraudsters know they are lying and plan to hit the exit before the reality is revealed.
