If you follow the news, you have heard Business leaders and political leaders respond to a valid question with the response… “I’m not going to comment on hypotheticals.”

In an effort to decode what this unusual statement means; I believe it means the person is not going to give a full and real response unless every fact is known and everything is certain. And even then, they most likely will hedge giving a meaningful response.

Unfortunately, shareholders, consumers, and the general public dislike inauthentic responses like this and in many cases this approach simply won’t work.