Page 139 - Midas Touch

Again, I know this makes me look like a fool, and a bad partner myself. I
wish my sequence of business start-up, business success, and the unveiling
of bad partners were different. I wish I were writing instead about good
partner experiences so I could be more positive about it. I thought about

being more general and not writing about my poor choices in partners, yet
I believe the lessons to you, the reader, are far more important than
preserving my ego, or the illusion that I know what I am doing. Like many
people, I go from screw-up to screw-up and somehow do okay in between.

Truth Be Told

I might not have survived if I did not have a great wife and business
partner in Kim. Since 1985, we have gone through some horrifying
betrayals from our partners. If not for Kim and great friends, we might not
have survived the financial and emotional devastation we have had to
endure. The financial cost has been in the tens of millions of dollars,
nearly a hundred million, but the emotional damage has been much, much

higher. To see people who were once friends and partners suddenly
unmasked, people we worked side by side with for years revealing their
lowest of base human behavior, is disturbing. It’s something never to be
forgotten.

In Vietnam, I thought I saw the worst of the human animal, but the animal
I saw in Vietnam is not the same animal I see in business. In Vietnam, fear
brought out the animal in a few soldiers. In business, greed and fear drive

the human animal. The betrayals in business are more sinister because the
betrayal is often against friends and co-workers, not enemies.

Betrayals Are Part of Life
There are two basic types of betrayal. One is criminal or intentional
betrayal. The other is betrayal due to incompetence or ignorance. If you

can learn and grow from life’s betrayals, you have a better chance of
evolving into an entrepreneur with your own Midas Touch.

The interesting aspect of all betrayal is that the person who is actively
betraying you often feels he or she is the one being betrayed. In other
words, that person finds a way to justify betraying you.

Your challenge is to become a better person for it. It may mean you don’t
retaliate even though you want to. It may mean not fueling the flames and