Bill Guertin | 800 Pound Gorilla Blog on SalesGravy.com

Steve Jobs brought himself to the microphone for the press conference this morning.  It was not something he was looking forward to.

The CEO of Apple has been on a roll lately.  The iPad has sold exceedingly well, the iPod and iPhone have become synonymous with cool, users rave about their products, and nothing seemed wrong with the world. 

But a little antenna problem in the new version of the iPhone forced Apple to have to ‘fess up to some bad news. 

It appeared that a design flaw has created a problem with the signal strength of the new hand-held cell phone.  If a user puts their hand on the upper left-hand corner of the iPhone device, the hand position blocks the cell signal considerably, or may fade out altogether.

Jobs began his conference with these words:  “Ladies and gentlemen… we’re not perfect.” 

One of the signs of true 800-Pound Gorillas – the dominant players in any market who have a large share of the business – is the fact that of you’re good and well-liked, lots of people will try to knock you off your perch at the top.  800-Pound Gorillas also have an uncanny ability to be secretive when they have to be, and transparent when they need to be. 

To admit your mistakes is never easy, but for those who succeed and thrive in business today, being honest and admitting when you’re wrong is considered a very strong positive attribute.  Consider the “reputation” of BP, and whether or not they’ll continue to be as dominant a company after all that’s been said about the Gulf oil spill.

The announcement by Apple was made today that those who own an iPhone 4 will receive a protective case that will solve the antenna-roaming problem at no charge.  Previous buyers and those who buy a new phone thru Sept. 30th will receive the case for free.  

When you’re wrong, admit it.  Then go make it right.   While the move may cost you in the short run, people will respect you for it, and reward you with positive word-of-mouth about how you handled the issue.     

When I was in deep trouble as a kid, my parents would confront me by asking the most incriminating question possible, and then top it off by disarming me from any form of explanation. I would begin to answer their question, and they’d put their hand up and say, “All we want to know is: Did you do this, yes or no?”

“But Mom, there was this… ”

“YES… OR… NO?” they would insist, eyes glaring  into mine.

I hated that question. I knew they were right in asking it, because they knew I would have some wild story that would somehow justify my bone-headed mistake.

Apparently Mark McGwire’s mom and dad raised him differently.

Mr. McGwire, owner of several major league baseball records, including the iconic record of most home runs in a single season, didn’t just confess to us that he took performance-enhancing steroids during his pro career; he went into a long, drawn-out diatribe of why he did it.

“The only reason I took steroids was for health purposes,” he said in an exclusive hour-long interview with TV sports journalist Bob Costas. “I was frustrated by injuries that weren’t healing properly,” he claimed. “The pressure to perform was enormous.”

Once the 800-Pound Gorilla of baseball’s power hitters, McGwire retired under a cloud of doubt and silence in 2001 as rumors of steroid use in baseball began to surface. “It doesn’t feel good to hear teammates walk by and say, ‘Oh, he’s injured again,’ McGwire admitted to Costas in between Kleenexes. “The wear and tear of 162 ballgames a year, year in and year out, was incredibly difficult.”

But, amazingly, during the interview, McGwire insisted that his taking of the illegal substances did not enhance his performance. “It was purely medicinal,” claims the now-remorseful slugger. “I’ve always had bat speed. I just learned how to shorten my bat speed. I learned how to be a better hitter.”

And we’re supposed to believe that your transformation from skinny first-baseman to power slugger had nothing to do with your wonder drugs?

“A pill or an injection cannot help you with the hand-eye coordination it takes to hit a baseball,” he postured to Costas during the interview. “There’s not a pill in the world that can help you to hit a baseball.”

Says who? You? The one without a medical license? The one that refused to come clean in front of Congress because your lawyers couldn’t make a deal with the prosecution to let you off the hook?

Yes, Mark, we’re all curious as to why you did it. But we’ve long since figured it out; your reasons are as insincere as your attempt to come clean at this exact moment – five years to the day of the filing of charges against you, because the Statute of Limitations allows you the immunity from the law you so fervently desire for yourself.

Setting the record straight? Is that what you’re doing, Mark? Seems to me like you’re saving your own butt – and raising more questions in the process.

As business owners, entrepreneurs, and sales professionals, here’s what we can take away from the Mark McGwire debacle:  If you do something wrong, be man (woman) enough to come clean about it in the right way. Insincerity in any form leads to more damaging results than the truth will ever do. And even if the truth does hurt, the ramifications may be less severe, and you’ll still have the respect of those who forgive the honest.

It’s too bad Mark McGwire’s mom wasn’t doing the interview.  I can just hear her now:

“Mark – MARK!  Shut up, Mark!  All we want to know is… Yes or No?”

– Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a dynamic sales training and consulting company and author of the brand-new book, The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How To Dominate Your Market, now available from John Wiley & Sons. Find more articles and valuable information at www.The800PoundGorilla.com, or follow Bill on Twitter at www.twitter.com/800poundgorilla.