Thread: The cold side of business

you can still get screwed over with a contract, then you have to court and worst you may not be able to collect. I think the best is to avoid partnerships as much as possible. Trust no one when it comes to YOUR MONEY and IDEAS and rule with an iron hand.

I'm not one to pick scabs so I'll just say this:

An employee is an employee, not a friend, not a mission, not your responsibility. They either:
1. Do enough work to increase your profits by more than you pay them
2. Take enough off your plate to allow you to increase the business by more than you pay them
3. Need to find another place to hang out during the day.


Partners - I have one, won't partner with anyone else. I'm married to her. Seen tooooo many examples of friends ruining friendships by becoming business partners. You reallllly need to ask yourself if you can treat someone just as thought they were a stranger in a business relationship and if you can't, you are asking for heartache.

Ohhh yeah. I've gotten the "run-around" when I first put a vending machine into a business. After I got it in there, they tried to ask for a higher percentage, claiming that he didn't talk it over with his business partners. I was about to rip that thing out of the wall.

Originally Posted by Bobo

Partners - I have one, won't partner with anyone else. I'm married to her. Seen tooooo many examples of friends ruining friendships by becoming business partners. You reallllly need to ask yourself if you can treat someone just as thought they were a stranger in a business relationship and if you can't, you are asking for heartache.

Boy................. Do I agree with this, because I'm married to mine. Only problem is: I can't tell her...........what to do................When dealing with a wife.........They usually tell you what to do. Oh well!

Originally Posted by Cat Man Du

...Only problem is: I can't tell her what to do. When dealing with a wife, they usually tell you what to do. Oh well!

How else are you guys going to stay out of trouble?!

Originally Posted by Rawr

Everyone surely has heard of the phrase "it's not personal, it is business", and how about all the stories we hear of people ripping off partners, accountants ripping off the owners, etc. It seems where money is to be grabbed, people like to grab it.

Please share your cold stories of people trying to screw you over in business, or just general "cold hearted" mindset that one must(?) have to succeed.


For me, this is the reason I LOVE contracts. I know people and how things can change, and that one week turns into half a year, so I want everything listed in a contract so we all agree from the start on what will happen.

One of my mentors (a high powered litigator, was my in-court atty for years) once told me that a contract was "nothing more than a story of how you planned to work together".

I agree. To this day, that's how I look at contracts.

FWIW, I hired the litigator for situations where I had clients who chose to completely ignore the contract we'd agreed on.

Thing is: Once you start working w/really, really rich/high powered people, contracts mean nothing. How you get along w/them-- and how you see them treat others around them-- those are the things that get you through to the end.

I once was on a job working for a single gal where she got a new bf and he convinced her to sue every single contractor on the job.

She did. Every one except me.

I once thought it was because of my contract. But I was kidding myself.

It was because she liked me.

That, and when we were meeting (just the 2 of us) to talk about "the problems" she was having and was apologizing for her bf, I said, "Oh, that's OK. He warns me in advance."

She stopped dead and said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "Whenever he's about to ask me something that traps me, he says, 'Can I ask you a question?' When he says that, red lights go off for me. I know what follows is going to be tricky to answer."

She looked stunned, and thought about that for a full 30 seconds or so.

Finally, she just said, quietly, "Thanks."

Their relationship didn't last (she was a truly nice and wonderful person; he was not). I think my being honest w/her-- and always accepting the blame and cleaning up after other's messes (instead of vice versa) were what made the difference.

I got paid, and didn't have any legal hassles. The other contractors got it the other way around.

-Russ H.

Contract means jack, you don't know the phrase "nothing personal, just business" means until you've been in Finance when everyday you're staring at millions of dollars of deals floating around.

The first thing I did when I went into this business, I pull the rug out from under two contract transactions worth a total of 90 million. They are on my table now, and I can't sleep at night cuz I know everyday someone is trying to pull the same move on me.

Same thing with negotiations, I just got a called yesterday and got lectured over the phone about how someone was pissed off at me, and how they thought they can trust me... all because during our negotiations I mislead him to think he had no competition, and when he found out now that I was talking to a lot of other guys, he felt betrayed.

It's unfortunate, but I've learn that to do what I do, conscience is an excuse for "I'm too scare do it".

Originally Posted by mkzhang

It's unfortunate, but I've learn that to do what I do, conscience is an excuse for "I'm too scare do it".

Oof. Now that's too cold for me.

Originally Posted by Rawr

Oof. Now that's too cold for me.

You are right. I think 99% of the time in life you will never need to be this cold, but in some businesses you do.

If you are doing something you love then you will be happy. If you are doing something because you are good at it, and you are in it for the money, then you will find it takes a heart of ice to compete against people who are just as money hungry as you

That's how I justify it to myself, greed is the primary motivation here, ain't no one going to feel sorry for my failures.

Originally Posted by mkzhang

Contract means jack, you don't know the phrase "nothing personal, just business" means until you've been in Finance when everyday you're staring at millions of dollars of deals floating around.

The first thing I did when I went into this business, I pull the rug out from under two contract transactions worth a total of 90 million. They are on my table now, and I can't sleep at night cuz I know everyday someone is trying to pull the same move on me.

Same thing with negotiations, I just got a called yesterday and got lectured over the phone about how someone was pissed off at me, and how they thought they can trust me... all because during our negotiations I mislead him to think he had no competition, and when he found out now that I was talking to a lot of other guys, he felt betrayed.

It's unfortunate, but I've learn that to do what I do, conscience is an excuse for "I'm too scare do it".

This is how sick I am. This is probably one of THE coolest stories I've heard on here. I just wished I had that mentality.

You either must be just as young, or just as competitive as me

I'm honest and still do stuff on a handshake. To me a handshake is as good as a contract, if I sell you something and someone comes along and offers me more I still won't sell it to them. A deal is a deal.

My reputation means a lot to me, and I won't want to be known as a snake.

Originally Posted by Rawr

Oof. Now that's too cold for me.

You'd be surprised.

I was like that and after having to meet a payroll for a while I figured something out - I got paid last.

There were some Fridays where I was left with $100... or took out a cash advance to pay everyone... those weeks make you considerably less sentimental and it gets easy to shoot someone who is costing you more than they are making you. Bidness is Bidness, I do my charitable giving elsewhere.

Right, exactly.

Human emotion is always being exploited in business, whether in the politic games you play, or enticing your customers, it is the key to many things.

Conscience, is one of the major emotions that people will use against you. From kids begging their teacher not to fail them, or to begging boss not to fire you cuz you have 3 kids to feed... people will use your conscience against you. You don't have to be a monster, but don't let your emotions make the decisions for you.