Be Greedy or Be Stupid | But Never Both
When I was young lad of 13 my father took me to a business meeting in Omaha. We lived in Denver and my dad owned a small airplane charter and flight school on Stapleton Field (now Denver International Airport). My dad needed money to make payroll for his business and thus was meeting with a potential investor in Omaha. This was no ordinary investor but when you need money the tendency is go to whomever and wherever has the money. He sat in a desk elevated 2 feet off the ground and had us sit in chairs with the legs cut in half so as to appear we were looking up at a god. It worked. I felt lower than a bug.
When he appeared at floor level 30
minutes later after the meeting was over, both my dad, 6’3” 52 inch chest and
I, 5’9, young, and handsome (ha-ha) frame at the time (now 6’3’ with 48’ chest
and 240 lbs) thought this guy was a certifiable midget of 5’4 inches. Don’t get
me wrong lots of people are short and I have nothing against short people but
this guy looked like the Wizard of Oz and to finally show his real nature was jaw
dropping.
He agreed to lend my dad the money and on our way out he tried with great effort to put his arm around my dad. He got as high as his waist and I heard him say, “Be greedy or be stupid but never both”. I asked my dad what that meant and he said, “I could loose his money from trying the best I could to make outrageous returns and fail (greedy) or I could loose his money doing the best I could to make a reasonable returns but make wrong decisions and fail (stupid), or do the best I can to hide the money, tell lies of what happened to it or steal it (Greedy and Stupid). He knew people that could put our family in harms way if my dad stole the money. If he was to catch my dad and the thief always gets caught, eventually”
I never forgot this because along the way I have been both greedy, by trying to tag along with the Hunts to corner the Silver Market and lost a small fortune in my 20’s, or stupid when I purchased $1 billion of mortgage servicing assets to be whipped sawed by interest rates and lost another small fortune in my 30s. The incidences in my life of making stupid decisions or greedy decisions could fill the New York public library, but I can honestly say without issue that I have never stolen someone’s money which would be stupid and greedy at the same time.
This is not so true of the partners,
employees, vendors, customers and shareholders in the 13 businesses I have
founded since I was 13 years old. As I look back the old saying, “what goes
around comes along” still holds. The thief always gets caught, always, all the
time.
For example, I was buying a bank in Minnesota in my 40’s and as a typical deal you deposit with the buyer in escrow 10% down and balance when the regulators approved the purchase of the bank. I wanted to be a banker so bad and the seller knew this as I salivated over the deal. He wined and dined me with the all the, “in” bankers throughout the county. I should have seen it. Then one day he asked if I wouldn’t mind giving him the entire purchase price upfront so he could make earnings and if I didn’t get approval he would wire the funds instantly back to me. Heck, I was his friend. He was a trusting banker, and he was connected to a network of upstanding gentlemen. Why not? Well I gave him the funds (handshake) and days later I was turned down by the regulators (didn’t have the pedigree) thus never got approval. When I sent the banker wiring instruction to return my funds he said, “What money”? The original agreement calls for no other agreements in and around this agreement. “What handshake?”, and he hung up. I was shocked. A banker, no less, was stealing my money.
After spending a half million
taking depositions my attorney said the banker wanted to see you go down in
flames and was very jealous. He also said that I could spend another $2-4
million getting to court and loose, because as an experienced business person I
knew contract law. His advice to me was, “Why don’t you cut your losses and chalk
this one up to stupidity!” I took his advice and lost millions.
I actually don’t know what happened to the banker but I was given the gift of a lifetime. This experience could have angered me forever but a older mentor said to me, “don’t give those who have taken something from you, a place in your mind by replaying the anger and hate over and over – as they will not only own your something, they will also own your mind as well”. I took the hurt and anger to prayer and soon after stopped blaming the banker. I owned the reasonability of my decision myself. I forgave myself for the temptation of banker needing to steal my money. I forgave the banker for his stupidly and greed. I found the gift of forgiveness and peace.
I look at my stupid or greedy decisions
on this journey from the mountain peaks into the deep valleys of life, and thanked
God he gave me the experiences of exploring the nature of people, places, and
things. Yes, I’ve been hurt countless times by PEOPLE, a PEOPLE who for no
other reason want to see harm done to others and the ironic thing is wrong it
is always punished. If not by justice, by self imposed guilt which leads to
drinking, drug abuse, sex abuse, pornography, and a trail of evil spiraling bad
misfortune.
As America’s largest online small business finance network with 510,000 small business members we connect small businesses to all the professionals related to the typical CFO management role (lenders, insurance agents, private investors, lawyers, accountants, and consultants). In this process we sell our member data to these professionals yet our employees are often tempted by these professionals who have suggested that our (employee) send them free contact information and in return they will pay them a sizable closing fee if the deal closes. It has never failed that those employees who have accepted the bribe of GREED and STUPIDITY have always been caught in the act and they are fired.
I pray that as we all go through life’s journey of temptations to cheat, steal, and lie, that we think first of our families, our reputations and most of all we think of the guilty mind share this festers forever in our mind. Be Greedy or Be stupid – but never be both at the same time..
Tom Markel CEO iBank.com
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