They simply could not overcome the critical questions.
YouTube comments:
“Best pitch ever indeed! Lesson to learn about how to hold your poise when the unexpected happens in perhaps the biggest moment of your life! Applaud Scott and his mate for doing an amazing job!”
“Let’s make kids safer in school.” … “No, the margins are awful.”
“They’re now worth over 8 million and still sell online :)”
This is an extaordinary episode. Both sides – the entrepreneurs on the one side and the sharks on the other side – are strongly in the mode of persuasion. Interestingly, the entrepreneurs made clear early why they are seeking help: they don’t understand the American market.
YouTube comments:
“Turning the tables and asking the sharks if they were committed and if they’d give them the time is superb. You can tell they’ve been in business before.”
“These two knew EXACTLY how to handle the sharks, and pitched their product extremely well.”
“The minute the gentleman admitted how he initially failed in the US market, aka realizing the results from his trial and error and learning from them, was when I saw these men were successful businessmen.”
Americans typically prefer rules that are very specific, but not meant to be followed to the letter. Nevertheless, recently in response to a lot of complaints about inconsistencies in disciplining misbehaving students, many American school systems have started adopting strict zero tolerance policies.
These policies typically state that any student committing a wrongdoing will receive the same pre-determined punishment, no matter what the specifics of his/her offense are.
Schools have had quite a bit of trouble implementing these policies, and statistics have shown that the rigid rules have actually led to elevated dropout rates and an increasing number of suspensions. This is largely because American students are used to having a little “wiggle room,” and weren’t accustomed to the strict enforcement policy.
Wiggle room – permission to slightly bend a couple of rules, as long as most of the rules are followed.
A big source of misunderstanding between Americans and Germans, rarely made explicit, is about whether business should inherently be customer-centric, supplier-centric, or somehow balanced, as our fourth column in this series explains.
Germans and Americans alike will of course say they care about their customers. But they associated different meanings with that notion. And that often leads to misunderstandings and frustration. American providers of business services proudly offer exactly that: a service. By contrast, German providers view their proposition less as a service and more as a consultation. The difference is subtle, but consequential.
When persuading Americans do not feel obligated to offer full and comprehensive information about the weaknesses of their proposal, concept, product or solution.
Instead, the obligation is with the buyer (the audience) to expose the weaknesses through critical questions. If asked, competent, professional and honest Americans will respond forthrightly.
This is a shared logic among Americans. Listeners know to ask the critical questions. Speakers know to anticipate those questions. If the critical questions are not asked, if the listener then accepts (buys), only later to discover negative aspects, the listener (buyer) will not blame the speaker (seller), but himself.
Besides, who wants to admit to their colleagues or boss, to their spouse or friends, that they made a poor decision?
Deutsche Welle – Languages borrow words from each other all the time. But if the meaning gets changed along the way, things can get pretty confusing. Meet the Germans presenter Rachel Stewart takes a look at some more English words that have been given a new meaning in Germany.
Rachel is on a mission to investigate the idiosyncrasies of daily life in Germany. Every two weeks she explores a new topic – from beer to nudity to complicated grammar.
Rachel moved from the UK to Germany in 2016. As a relative newcomer she casts a fresh eye over German clichés and shares her experiences of settling into German life. You’ll find more from Meet the Germans on YouTube or at dw.com/MeettheG
Political correctness language (also known as PC) aims to avoid any form of descrimination or perceived discrimination against social, economic or political groups defined by race, gender, religion, ethnicity, age, disability or sexual orientation.
See gender-neutral terms such as firefighter in the place fireman and firewoman, police officer in place of policeman and policewoman; value-free terms describing physical disabilities, such as visually impaired in place of blind and hearing impaired in place of deaf; value-free cultural terms, such as Holiday season and Winter holiday, in place of Christmas.
If you type into Google „reasons for small talk“ or „why small talk“ or „purpose of small talk“, it will respond with numerous links to people – experts and amateurs – who typically state anywhere between five and ten reasons.
Small talk: Signals the mood of the other person; finds topics of common ground; fills in a communication vacuum; establishes trust; is a possible introduction to big talk topics; identifies issues which might be too sensitive to address; can communicate interest, care, even affection; allows one to overcome their own shyness.
But what about introverts, those who prefer to discuss topics of substance?
The dictionary defines streitbar as follows: [constantly] prepared, having the will to, argue, with someone over something, to critically and activelydispute something; to fight for or about something, to take a stand for something or someone, a fighter; [older] prepared for battle; warrior-like, brave.
The adjective streitbar has a very positive connotation in the German language. In recalling famous persons one often reads the sentence Er war streitbar – he was streitbar.
Politicians are ever more frequently characterized as being streitbar. Streitbar does not mean that one seeks out conflicts in a negative sense. Rather, it means to stand up for ones beliefs, and not avoid serious confrontations.