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Don't work with assholes

danielrsim.com

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Re: Don't work with assholes

#21

Post by davidwritesbugs »

bouke wrote: post #10

> With a young family and a new life beginning, I did not want to ruin the limited time I have on this earth with my loved ones being a dad whose head is somewhere else, rather than enjoying these moments together. This a*hole wasn't worth it. I paid him off to leave us alone. While understandable from his POV, I'm disappointed to see the guy getting paid for services not rendered, and so reinforcing his tactics.

As an ex-lawyer I'd say this was 100% a good decision. As a profession we make our living off people who say "Dammit I won't pay, it's the principle, it's wrong & immoral." I, and I suspect many other lawyers, would always reply that principles cost a fortune in money time and grey hairs. I had plenty of clients and didn't need to litigate for billable hours.

Re: Don't work with assholes

#22

Post by dale_glass »

This also applies in non-business contexts.

If you have a nice open source project, minecraft server, web forum, whatever: get rid of the assholes. Even if they are a highly capable person, in the end it's not worth it. They'll turn off other valuable community members, cause drama, and shift the general atmosphere to the worse.

Re: Don't work with assholes

#23

Post by neilv »

> Guess who has a strong interest in the holding company? He does! Here we have a broker, purportedly acting for the seller in a transaction, who also benefits from a holding company as a buyer. I'm not a lawyer, but if that's not a conflict I don't know what is.

What government authority regulates this kind of broker (e.g., is there a fiduciary responsbility?), and investigates conflicts of interest like the one alleged here?

Or is that entirely a civil matter?

Re: Don't work with assholes

#24

Post by cornfutes »

mnky9800n wrote: post #2

this is sort of besides the point of the article, but why do people make businesses to sell them? as a scientist, i am not terribly interested in giving away the ideas that i have worked on for, typically, years. i become quite invested in them and continue to pursue them and evolve them until the funding runs out or new interests pop up that are worth replacing the old ones (typically this is an evolution as well).…

> why do people make businesses to sell them?

Money to go do something else.

Re: Don't work with assholes

#25

Post by jacquesm »

bouke wrote: post #10

> With a young family and a new life beginning, I did not want to ruin the limited time I have on this earth with my loved ones being a dad whose head is somewhere else, rather than enjoying these moments together. This a*hole wasn't worth it. I paid him off to leave us alone. While understandable from his POV, I'm disappointed to see the guy getting paid for services not rendered, and so reinforcing his tactics.

It's a very sound business decision.

Re: Don't work with assholes

#26

Post by lelima »

bouke wrote: post #10

> With a young family and a new life beginning, I did not want to ruin the limited time I have on this earth with my loved ones being a dad whose head is somewhere else, rather than enjoying these moments together. This a*hole wasn't worth it. I paid him off to leave us alone. While understandable from his POV, I'm disappointed to see the guy getting paid for services not rendered, and so reinforcing his tactics.

I'm in the same boat, I guess everyone will like to see the bully being stopped, yet it's hard to act when you have the chance

Re: Don't work with assholes

#28

Post by butler14 »

bouke wrote: post #10

> With a young family and a new life beginning, I did not want to ruin the limited time I have on this earth with my loved ones being a dad whose head is somewhere else, rather than enjoying these moments together. This a*hole wasn't worth it. I paid him off to leave us alone. While understandable from his POV, I'm disappointed to see the guy getting paid for services not rendered, and so reinforcing his tactics.

I agree. I'd love to see more details on what the guy felt he was entitled to. I suspect there was a contract signed early on in their dealings that the author of this blog post is not being forthcoming with.

Re: Don't work with assholes

#29

Post by DanielHB »

One thing I learned while buying my home is that most middleman in this kind of environment care more about volume of sales than value of sale, even if they are on commission. Increasing the sale price by 10% might mean 10% more in his bank account at the cost of much more work for himself and missed opportunity of closing other sales.

Re: Don't work with assholes

#30

Post by probably_wrong »

mnky9800n wrote: post #2

this is sort of besides the point of the article, but why do people make businesses to sell them? as a scientist, i am not terribly interested in giving away the ideas that i have worked on for, typically, years. i become quite invested in them and continue to pursue them and evolve them until the funding runs out or new interests pop up that are worth replacing the old ones (typically this is an evolution as well).…

> why would a business run the same without the person who did all the work doing it?

This is the part that I don't get either. I can imagine hearing "this coffee shop got better since the new owners", but I know I have heard "this place used to be good until it changed owners". And since the new owners have paid X years of profit which they arguably want to recover in less than X years, it is more than likely that they'll start cutting costs as a result.

So I wouldn't have a reason to believe that a business with new owners would run just as well as before, and in fact I would expect the opposite.

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