“Naïve” is the word that comes to mind that describes me as a kid straight out of college moving to San Diego. My mom is a good person with strong principles and high moral standards; I actually thought all people genuinely cared about one another and would help when needed—like my mom.
Unfortunately, I no longer think that thought. Having been around the real estate development industry, I’ve been exposed to some of the worst traits of humans. If you’re not careful, your character changes and hardens to be able to handle the mistruths and misdirection that some choose to use as a matter of course. Even people you thought were friends in business would take a similar direction.
So I went from naive to forming a couple of general thoughts so as not to be surprised when it happened again. The first one is 1) “Money trumps morals 95% of the time.” As you can see, I did leave a 5% cushion as there are some really good, honest people in the world. The second thought kind of coattails on the first one, and it is 2) “Desperate people do desperate things.” I actually learned this one from an equity lender.
You may think I’m cynical, but I’m not. I just became tired of playing chess with a checkers mentality. And maybe it is appropriate that everyone should first look out for themselves. I still want to believe that a good relationship whether it is one of personal, or business is one in which both parties benefit and not one at the expense of the other.