The 5 Most Expensive Words Known to Man

When I remodeled a house years ago, I decided that the most expensive words known to man were, "While we’re at it...." Then a co-author and I spent two years having a team of researchers look at 2,500 corporate disasters and realized the most expensive words are actually, "We have to do something...."

Those words spring to mind because several columnists in recent days have opined that, sure, Mark Zuckerberg is overspending by billions of dollars a year on a misguided vision of the metaverse, contributing to the expected layoffs of thousands of employees this week, but HE HAS TO DO SOMETHING to revive growth -- and right now.

Or, look at Elon Musk, who HAS TO DO SOMETHING about Twitter so quickly that he is doing and undoing initiatives almost as fast as he can tweet and is driving away users and advertisers in the process.

Actually, rather than lunging toward the metaverse before he has it figured out, Zuckerberg could return the billions to shareholders and let them find other innovations to invest in, or he could simply keep his powder dry until he understands more about what more prudent investors, such as venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, are calling Web 3.0. Musk, after taking his initial, likely needed, cut at costs could put together an actual plan and stress test it rather than just announcing and quickly amending plans online.