As we listen to or watch sports programs, cliches from announcers seem to "fall like rain" (another cliche). If we listen carefully to what is being said, it starts to make us doubt our sanity. Here are a few of my favorite idiotic cliches by announcers, coaches and athletes:

• "We've got our game faces on."
• "The wheels just fell off."
• "He's a real throwback."
• "This could get ugly."
• "We came to play."
• "We've overcome adversity."
• "He's some kind of player."
• "They have to circle the wagons."
• "We're ready to move to the next level."
• "He's the real deal."
• "We're on the bubble."
• "He lets the game come to him."
• "He's a cutter and a slasher" (not so popular since the O.J. Simpson trial).

Most of us absorb this drivel without even thinking about it. The cliches become part of the game, whether or not they have any real relevance to what is happening on the field of play. The same is true of entrepreneurial cliches, many of which are spoken so often that we don't think about what the entrepreneur is really saying when he or she says it.

Here are a few business cliches that annoy me - and their real meanings:

• "I'm a serial entrepreneur." (This really means, "I've started lots of companies that have gone nowhere.")
• "We're establishing a serious marketing relationship." ("We made a phone call and left a message on a prospective customer's answering device.")
• "We're going to pick the low-hanging fruit first." ("We're going to try to sell our product or service to the easy targets first.")
• "We're thinking outside the box." ("We've found ways to lose money that no one else has thought of.")
• "We're trying to get our arms around it." ("We're having a hard time trying to figure out what the heck is going on here.")
• "This is really Mission Critical." ("If we don't make this sale, we're screwed.")
• "Our product provides seamless interface." ("This should work with your software except for the bugs we haven't fixed yet.")
• "We're getting traction." ("We finally got a sale - never mind that it was the president's brother-in-law.")
• "We want to be the first mover." ("If we pay massive marketing costs, we have the advantage of getting initial customers, otherwise we just alerted our competitors.")
• "This is really cutting-edge technology." ("Brace yourself for more bugs than usual."
• "We're in beta." ("We have no idea if the product will be accepted, but we've given it free to some possible clients.")
• "Core competency." ("What we think we can do well once we have money, a management team, a strategy and something beyond a prototype.")

As you raise money, recruit a management team and form a company strategy, try to avoid using the normal cliche babble.