Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Create Your Own Hell

I have a friend who has spent the last ten years putting together a substantial project. He got everything assembled and then ran into our new government, specifically a crew on ROAD status (Retired On Active Duty). Two years to complete a 90 day process...so far.

For everyone except government, time is money, so when my friend ran short, he had to bring in partners. It hurt, but it had to be done.

From the start, his new partners made sure to tell him he was the junior interest, and obviously not too swift since he had to work with them. Not pleasant, but he was focused on completion.

Last week his ugly partners learned he is also on a project several orders of magnitude larger, working with someone they really wanted to meet. Unfortunately, they were already well known, so it was a non-starter.

Some time ago I wrote about the Masada Game Theory, treating each transaction as if there would never be another, screw, bilk, and gouge your way to any small, temporary advantage.

What if we played as if the best was yet to come?

2 comments:

Thoughthebrowser said...

Seth Godin's take: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/06/the-last-minute.html

Unknown said...

Dick:

There's a popular adage - "what goes around comes around" - which holds true (the distribution may not be perfect, however). The one-timer sales often use a lot of creativity to make a sale with no chance of future business and are joyful at 'unloading' the product. Or in this case, the money guys demand royal treatment and a one-way premium for the use of their funds.

Doesn't the approach embodied by George Bailey - the banker in "It's a Wonderful Life" who is repaid for his caring and good deeds - have the greatest overall return? And repeat business?

Sometimes circumstances lead us to making a deal with the devil - but it does not require us to do business development for him.

A good,thought-provoking post!