There's A Lot to Be Said

You know, there's a lot to said for looking at something from your own point of view, and saying "this is the way I choose to do business, and you choose to business a different way. And that's OK that it works for you, but I will not choose to do business with you."

It's kind of like, when I go to a fruit stand and there's a peach I like, so I look at the price, and I decide to buy it.

Then, there's another customer who goes to the store, and sees the same peach, and says "I like it, but I want to pay less for it" so he goes to the fruit stand worker and says "Hey, I really like you, and I really like your stand, and I really like this peach, but I can only pay you 50% of what you're asking for it. Now, maybe tomorrow, if I have a good bowel movement because of your peach, I can come back and pay you some more for it."

Now, let's examine this for a minute.
First - The customer probably doesn't at all know the fruit stand worker and is making a snap judgement on the persons character in order to get what he wants.
Second - Who cares if he likes the stand? It's a shack. Shut up.
Third - Glad you like the peach, please pay for it.
and last
Fourth - I don't want to know anything about your potential bowel movements, please, I'll take 50% just to get you to shut up and leave my shack.

In current negotiations I'm having, in an attempt to buy out a company that will fail without a team and a real strategy and organizational structure behind it, we reached the point today where we walked away from the deal. We were done. There was no way to reconcile the BS that came back at us, a company where we have 6 figures worth of hard assets and zero (ZERO) debt, to take on another company that has less than $4,000 in hard assets and close to HALF A MILLION dollars in debt but has some "intangible" assets that have debatable real value, and some strategic value. So we called it a wash.

Until the majority shareholder of the company called to ask if he could come over RIGHT NOW to please find a way to make it work.

After much discussion, the discussion is to be continued in the morning, but the deeper we get, the more I start to think that even IF we get everything we want, it still might be more pain than it's worth because I don't like working with someone who does business in a different way than I do... that is why my partners have chosen to work with me, and I have chosen to work with them. And yet, maybe there is still some value - there IS definitely some sort of talent and ability inherent in the owner that has brought about some good things, though maybe in spite of his talent and ability to create things on purpose. His ability to spin and publicize things is pretty damn amazing. And he IS funny. Sometimes.

But dammit, it is hard to look at a proposition that looked uncertain from the get go, and to try to walk away when it looked worse, and to have someone come back and say "wait wait wait" - there's a long road ahead for what's left tomorrow morning.

Either way, it will turn out well for my company as our passion and enthusiasm for a new market fuels our imaginations and our relationships in our current business. It will be interesting to be a part of.