Watch Your Back

Friday, November 3, 2006 at 03:16pm by William Quisenberry in Innovation

If I had a dollar for every snake that I’ve met since working in business, that’s including working for others and for myself, then I would be lounging, sipping margaritas with Bill Gates, Trump and Warren Buffet off the coast somewhere.

Flat out there are some real crooks out there. I don’t know how in the world they survive since many people in the business community love to talk; you would think that these dishonest deadbeats wouldn’t have the ability to work with anybody else because of their horrible reputations.

To make matters worse, we are young entrepreneurs here at Mind Petals and many people just feel that they can screw us over because of our age. Not only do you have to learn to be bold and stick up for yourself, but you need to feel people out properly and try to develop that third sense to sniff out a jerk who’s not worth sitting at the table with.

I don’t know any other way to develop this vibe sensing ability other than naturally or through pure experience.

For me I wasn’t born with this ability, I came along into the business world as blind as a bat. Nobody in my my family had worked in business and I didn’t have any mentors with an entrepreneur focus, so I was in the dark.

When I first got into the business world I thought just because a person smiled at you, talked nice and wore a business suit, that they actually gave a flying turd about you or were really as authentic as they appeared.

And please don’t believe any of those old school lie detector tests that claim if a person shakes your hand firmly and looks at you in the eye during discussions that they are “Honest Abe.”

People I got my start in the automotive sales industry and unfortunately I have met people who have mastered their poker faces and you never know when they’re actually telling the truth and they will look into your eyes all day long.

I’m not sure if there are any real pointers that can actually be explained in this particular learning scenario. Like I mentioned earlier you’re either born with the talent of reading through B.S. and sensing a crooked business person or you’re going to have to pick it up as you go.

One piece of advice that I will offer to you is to always keep your head on the swivel, make people earn your trust and sleep with one eye open. I know this may seem a bit extreme, but truly in business there are sharks everywhere searching for guppies, so make sure that you wise up and stay off the main course menu.

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