Vulgar, but humorous.
caveat emptor
The Americans have a Latin term caveat emptor. It means “Let the buyer beware.” When persuading, presenting, convincing, selling Americans present the positive picture: what works. Americans do not feel obligated to present or to reveal what doesn’t work, what is negative. In the U.S. business culture the audience is obligated to expose what doesn’t work by asking critical questions. Persuasive is selling what works, and not what doesn’t work.
caveat emptor
caveat: may he/she beware. emptor: buyer. caveat emptor is Latin for “Let the buyer beware”. Generally, caveat emptor is the contract law principle that controls the sale of real property after the date of closing, but may also apply to sales of other goods.
The phrase caveat emptor and its use as a disclaimer of warranties arises from the fact that buyers typically have less information than the seller about the good or service they are purchasing. This quality of the situation is known as information asymmetry. Defects in the good or service may be hidden from the buyer, and only known to the seller.
caveat emptor is a short form of Caveat emptor, quia ignorare non debuit quod jus alienum emit: “Let a purchaser beware, for he ought not to be ignorant of the nature of the property which he is buying from another party.”
A common way that information asymmetry between seller and buyer has been addressed is through a legally binding warranty, such as a guarantee of satisfaction.
Business Case Method
Most American business schools base their teaching on case studies, a method which goes back over one hundred years. Business cases are descriptions of actual business situations.
Information is presented about a company: products, markets, competition, financial structure, sales, management, employees, as well as other factors influencing success. The length of business cases ranges from five to fifty pages. Case studies are based on experience.
Buying a used Tesla
Here’s a good example of the need to do your homework, your due diligence, before making a major purchase.
Selfie Election
Facing a Selfie Election, Presidential Hopefuls Grin and Bear It. July 4, 2015. Jeremy Peters and Ashley Parker. New York Times.
“Press that white button! This right here,” the former secretary of state instructed a technologically deficient fan in New Hampshire who was fumbling to work an iPhone camera. Her patience thinning, Hillary Rodham Clinton took matters into her own hands and jabbed the button herself.
Who wants their babies kissed or their yard signs autographed anymore? This is the Selfie Election. And if you are running for president, you have no choice but to submit.
Candidates can now spend an hour exhausting a line of eager selfie seekers. Jeb Bush has perfected a technique suited to his 6-foot-3 frame: For his shorter fans, he will take the picture with his own outstretched selfie stick of an arm.
“They just have to put up with it, because how do you decipher who is a fan and who wants to fill their profile with pictures of them with candidates?” said Mr. Robinson, editor of The Iowa Republican, a political publication.
Senator Marco Rubio will indulge people who want selfies. But he often travels with a professional photographer who takes photos of him with voters as an aide trails behind, handing out index cards listing a website where supporters can go to download their pictures.
The benefit? Not only does the photographer speed the process and produce higher-quality images, but voters are asked to provide personal information on Mr. Rubio’s website. Before they can view their photos, Rubio supporters have told the campaign their name, their home and email addresses, which issues matter most to them and if they are willing to volunteer.
Personal Experience
Although Americans strive to be analytical, objective, scientific, what most persuades them is experience. For Americans experience is fact, real data, empirical, irrefutable. Theory, logic, rigorous analysis are seldom more convincing than hearing a person say: “I was there. I saw it with my own eyes” or “We tried the approach and it worked”.
Empiricism is the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. As a philosophy, it emerged with the rise of experimental science and was developed in the 17th and 18th centuries by thinkers such as John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. The idiom “seeing is believing” signals the belief that people can only really believe what they experience personally.
obligation to inform
The Germans have a legal term called Auskunftspflicht. Auskunft means information. Pflicht means obligation. Auskunftspflicht: the obligation to inform. When Germans persuade, convince, present, sell, the consciously Germans present the full picture: what works and what doesn’t work. Anything less is unprofessional, dishonest, and most certainly not persuasive.
“I have not yet begun to fight”
These were the words of Captain John Paul Jones, an American immigrant who volunteered for service in the Navy. During the American Revolution, he was ordered to sail to European waters where he was expected to attack British ships and seaports and generally create havoc.
In 1779, following Jones’ attack on the coast of Ireland, he sailed a squadron of five ships north around the tip of Scotland to a position near Northern England. There, he met a large merchant convoy that was escorted by two ships in the British navy (including the impressive 44-gun Serapis) and immediately gave chase.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s58mlY1R6k[/embedyt]It wasn’t long before the British ships gained the advantage, and Jones’ flagship, the Bonhomme Richard took critical damage and began to sink. Seeing this, the British captain demanded Captain Jones’ surrender.
However, rather than surrender, Jones responded with his now famous words “I have not yet begun to fight.” After this, Jones and his crew increased the ferocity of their attack so much that, despite their inferior ships, inferior training, and initially inferior position, they ultimately won the battle.
“My only regret ….”
These were the last words of American Nathan Hale just before he was hanged as a spy during the American Revolution. Hale, a teacher, joined the fight in 1775, at the age of 20. He quickly rose to the rank of captain, and, while serving under General George Washington at the battle of Harlem Heights, volunteered to go on a spy mission.
Masquerading as a Dutch schoolteacher, Hale spent a week collecting information on the position of British troops. However, when Hale attempted to return to the American side, he was captured. Based on the information that Hale was carrying, he was quickly accused of spying and sentenced to die.
Faced with his approaching hanging, Hale chose to look at his fate as a positive opportunity to serve, rather than a negative problem which he had to overcome. Consequently, Nathan Hale was hanged on September 22, 1776, without having made any serious attempts to escape his death.