Page 140 - Midas Touch

amplifying the betrayal process. It’s tough, but the challenge is to become
bigger than the person who betrayed you. If you have yet to be betrayed,
you’ll see a side of yourself you may not have seen yet. If you know you
have it in you, you’ve probably been betrayed in your life.

The pain of betrayal can be so great that your first response may be to
want to punish the person who betrayed you. Resist that urge to turn
primal, even if you feel justified in doing so. You see, that is what the
person who is betraying you is doing. He or she has found a way to justify
betraying you, regardless of whether or not you deserved it. In effect, he or
she is punishing you for your betrayal, even if you did nothing at all.

In my Rippers business, my CPA Stanley took the $100,000 I raised from
an investor and paid off his friends who had invested in the business.

When I confronted him, reminding him that we agreed the $100,000 was
to buy more products rather than pay back investors, he reacted by saying,
“But I had to pay off my friends first.” In his mind, he did the right thing,
even though he betrayed his partners.

When I explained to him that the $100,000 in products would have been
worth $1 million or more in sales, more than enough to pay off all our
investors, he would not listen. Once he paid off his friends, he resigned

and the business soon collapsed. After Stanley left, he called other
investors to tell them how incompetent I was. Soon more and more
investors began demanding their money back. Did I want to get back at
Stanley? Of course, but I didn’t.

It took me two years to rebuild the business and begin paying investors
back. It turns out doing the right thing, the hard thing, rather than going

bankrupt, was a priceless experience in my development as an
entrepreneur. Painful as it was, I became better for the experience. Don’t
expect to arrive at that kind of insight overnight though. If you’re like me,
you’ll want to get even many times over before you learn to appreciate the
experience.

Rich dad could sense Stanley was weak and lacked courage. When the
pressure from his friends grew too great, he betrayed his partners and the

business.