"Trillion is the new billion"

It’s a key message in my book Navigating the Winds of Change: Staying on Course in Business & in Life: Perspective matters.

It’s so easy to lose perspective. Whether you’re trying to convince a boss to make a change or trying to evaluate if a government reform idea is a good deal or not, getting a sense of perspective can make all the difference.

Frankly, I have trouble visualizing a trillion of anything. As reported this last week, the White House predicts a deficit of $1.841 trillion dollars for the current fiscal year.

Seems like a really big number. To get some perspective, how does that compare to some previous years? The biggest deficit for any fiscal year on record is $454.8 billion, rung up in fiscal 2008. So we’re predicting to be $1.4 trillion dollars worse than the worst year on record. Yet as bad as that sounds, I still find it difficult to get my arms around how big a trillion really is.

Often a picture can serve up perspective more effectively. Here are a couple examples that illustrate a trillion dollars:

• From PageTutor.com
• From YouTube

This posting is not about whether health care reform or stimulus spending is a good idea or not. It’s not about left vs. right or Republicans vs. Democrats.

Here’s my point: when you hear any leader (whether in government or in business) throwing around numbers that are difficult to comprehend, try to get perspective using a picture. It will help you better evaluate the long-term implications of their statements.