I a career spanning a couple of decades one meets lots of people, working with them, for them, interviewing them. Some people expect a lot from them, loyalty, herd mentality etc…. Fortunately whilst being an optimist I am also a pragmatic person who does not keep expectations very high, because that leads to disappointments. But I truly believe……

Every person I am acquainted with knows something better than me. My aim is to listen long enough to find it and use it

Some years ago a friend introduced an acquaintance over dinner one evening & the talk then veered to his new concept relating to my experience & we shared some thoughts, with me providing some inputs.

A couple of days later the said acquaintance called up inquiring if I could meet him, his colleagues etc. As a favor to the friend who also called later, I agreed. Spending a good couple of hours answering their questions, it was time to go, when the said gentleman asked when could I do this again. Giving a Non committal answer, I called up my friend later & asked him the following questions:

1) Would the said acquaintance be running this as a business & making money out of the venture?
2) Would the friend be on board & make money out of this venture?
3) With his continuing business, where he would add the new venture, he was not short of money, right?

In which case, there would be a cost of expertise. This put a strain to my relations with the friend though over the years he also realised that I was correct. Because I said ” if you are GOOD at something, never do it for FREE”