Happy Sunday Everyone:
A friend of mine was presented with an opportunity to move companies for what seems like an amazing comp structure. We’ve been talking about it and whether or not it made sense for them to make the move. The challenge is, the people involved on the other side of this opportunity have less than stellar reputations in their business dealings, but the money makes it really hard not to consider.
I had a bit of an epiphany when I was thinking through this whole thing for them, and with them. I started thinking about everyone I know. Literally started thinking about all these professional and personal relationships I have by name. People I’m in deep relationship with, people no longer in my life, people with massive integrity, people with no integrity, people who burn bridges, people who honor their word, people who stick, people who run, people who lie, people who tell the truth, people who have honor, people who have no honor. What I realized in thinking of every single one of these people, is that none of them have changed as long as I’ve known them.
What’s important to grasp is it’s not a judgment of anyone, it’s just a reality, and that reality creates clarity in how the decisions we make get made. I’m stubborn, I can be short tempered, I like to get my way, I was that way 10, 20, and 30 years ago, and I’ll likely be that way 10, 20 and 30 years from now. Anyone that is close to me would say “YES HE IS”. Do I hope it cools a bit, sure…will it, not likely. I have plenty of good qualities too, and they’ve been there just as long. Peoples strengths and weaknesses are what they are, they might go up and down by working on both sides of the equation but fundamentally, we are who we are. Picture someone you know will show up for you (by name), they were like that 10 years ago, yes? Picture someone who manipulates and cheats (by name), they were like that way 10 years ago, yes?
The key is to consider what you’re willing to tolerate and at what cost. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Imagine a scale of 1 to 10 for strengths and weaknesses. Being nice might be a 5 as a strength, lying might be a 10 on weakness, you can be both nice and liar, yes? so the 10 outweighs the 5 and therefore I choose to not engage with you. I’m of the opinion the decisions we choose to make today are going to go much better when evaluating who people have proven out to be, vs. hoping they change to be something different than their current reputation.
I walked my friend through my thought process on this exercise Friday and think it created more clarity as they evaluate their decision. Two quotes stand out for me, “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior”, author unknown, and Charlie Munger (Warren Buffet’s business partner), “you should never make a deal with a bad person because no contract can protect you from their tricks”.
It’s worth asking: who in your life has already shown you exactly who they are? Are you making decisions based on that, or based on who you hope they’ll become?