Franchise King Echoes Mark Twain on Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

What I really like about Franchise King Joel Libava’s post Shocking Facts About Franchising Success Rates Revealed is how clearly he calls out the sleazy or sloppy (take your choice) use of very old statistics to mislead and entice people.

Joel_on_statistics.jpg

He concludes:

A simple scan of some of the cheaper-looking websites that some of the franchise brokerage outfits include as part of their, “Start-Up Packages,” are very telling. Newer franchise brokers and, “Consultants,” regularly copy and paste paragraphs of gunk that cite franchise success statistics from 20-30 years ago. (That have since been been disproven.)

Well done Joel. And of course it’s not just franchising. This is happening all the time, everywhere. Statistics are so easy to push out as if they proved something, when in fact they don’t.

Mark Twain said it:

“There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.”

Comments

  • Joel Libava says:

    Thanks for the shout-out, Tim!

    It’s all about doing the right thing, and in this case, that doesn’t include spouting off old…and unproven stats.

    Thanks for your support!

    The Franchise King®

  • Steve says:

    Tim: My favorite quote on stats is Churchill’s “the only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself”.

    I like the milder form – “only trust statistics you made up yourself” – even better.

Leave a Reply to Joel Libava Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *