Author Topic: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.  (Read 11543 times)

UPINTHEMGUTS

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #25 on: December 16, 2006, 10:45:05 AM »
Five years ago a couple of friends of mine asked me to be a part of a mortgage business they started. I would be entitled to 1/3 ownership. At the time I didn't know anything about that line of work and the money to put down would have been risky. I backed off.


I make a six figure income but those guys make triple what I make. :-\

chainsaw

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #26 on: December 20, 2006, 07:58:16 AM »
I would have to say...  My wife and accountant fouled up with the man...  I have to take ultimate responsability though.

IRS....

Pay the man, and more.

Cause, you will pay eventually
Most are all show no go!

bbinsider

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #27 on: January 26, 2007, 03:13:06 PM »
Trusting my employees.
The BBinsider

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #28 on: January 26, 2007, 10:42:12 PM »
Trusting my employees.

Or hiring the wrong employees?  If you cannot trust your employees, you cannot run a successful business. 

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #29 on: January 27, 2007, 12:52:23 AM »
IRS....
Pay the man, and more.
Cause, you will pay eventually


ALWAYS pay.  I think I'm paying more this year than I earned last year LMAO...  They get their money and I sleep sound.

Trusting my employees.

People will tend to do what they LOVE or what they HAVE to do.  Outside of that, you can't trust them to grow your dream when myspace is available.

Or hiring the wrong employees?  If you cannot trust your employees, you cannot run a successful business. 

You can trust them to operate specific parts of your business.  but you have to trust they'll always put their families, income, rent, relationships, getting laid, and many other things ahead of your longterm business goals.  When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self. 

D-bol

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #30 on: January 27, 2007, 03:38:25 AM »
When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self. 

Unless yo pay him shitloads and give him bonuses and options!! ;)

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #31 on: January 27, 2007, 06:50:33 AM »
Unless yo pay him shitloads and give him bonuses and options!! ;)

actually - by paying him well and tying his income to company performance, what you're essentially doing is aligning his goals with the company goals.  By choosing self, he will choose to make your company do very well.  Motivation is the key :)

EL Mariachi

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #32 on: January 27, 2007, 10:43:31 AM »
playing roulette

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #33 on: January 27, 2007, 11:07:20 AM »

You can trust them to operate specific parts of your business.  but you have to trust they'll always put their families, income, rent, relationships, getting laid, and many other things ahead of your longterm business goals.  When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self. 

How many employees do you have?  This is a mischaracterization.  Obviously, most solid citizens place their families and relationships before work.  But if you do your homework and are a good manager, you will hire, train, develop, and trust excellent and loyal employees.  There are employees who have been with my company for over 30 years.  I'd trust them with my kids.  I was just talking to a secretary the other day who has been with the company for 17 years.  I trust her.  She is buying a new house and I'm sure in terms of priority the house comes before the job, but when she is at work she is 100 percent dedicated to her direct supervisor and to the company.  That's how loyal and trustworthy employees operate. 

I trust my partners too and they trust me.  That is in large part why we are successful.   


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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #34 on: January 28, 2007, 12:25:50 AM »
Yet there are still many employees who being long with the company still land you an unpleasant surprise. You gotta look at the personality...some people just cant resist extra dollar and will sell their mother for a good offer, let alone your company.

Also the preception of fairness is always different with employer and employee. Most of the time the employers think they pay fair or even too much to an employee, but that employee thinks he/she's paid too little.


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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #35 on: January 28, 2007, 12:42:23 AM »
How many employees do you have?  This is a mischaracterization.  Obviously, most solid citizens place their families and relationships before work.  But if you do your homework and are a good manager, you will hire, train, develop, and trust excellent and loyal employees.  There are employees who have been with my company for over 30 years.  I'd trust them with my kids.  I was just talking to a secretary the other day who has been with the company for 17 years.  I trust her.  She is buying a new house and I'm sure in terms of priority the house comes before the job, but when she is at work she is 100 percent dedicated to her direct supervisor and to the company.  That's how loyal and trustworthy employees operate. 

I trust my partners too and they trust me.  That is in large part why we are successful.   

You have a good situation and your people are well.  But the rule remains the same.

If one of the secretary's husbands get cancer of the ass and your insurance doesn't cover it, and you happen to leave 250k in petty cash, and the whole place is the honor system, there is a more than zero % chance a secreatary will swipe from petty cash to get her man's back pussy replaced.

You can be a great HR guy, but the reason they show up isn't because they love you.  They show up because they like the $ and accept the opportunity cost tradeoff of their time for that money.  period.  Enjoy the hugs, be there for each other, yank each other off at the company pow wow.  That'd be super.  but they show up because of the money and acceptable conditions.  if they won the lottery tomorrow, you'd have an empty office on Monday morning.  If any one of them had risk to life, limb, family, or pet, and you were vulnerable, they're gonna take.  it's human nature, and it's naive to believe people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations.


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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #36 on: January 28, 2007, 10:43:46 AM »
You have a good situation and your people are well.  But the rule remains the same.

If one of the secretary's husbands get cancer of the ass and your insurance doesn't cover it, and you happen to leave 250k in petty cash, and the whole place is the honor system, there is a more than zero % chance a secreatary will swipe from petty cash to get her man's back pussy replaced.

You can be a great HR guy, but the reason they show up isn't because they love you.  They show up because they like the $ and accept the opportunity cost tradeoff of their time for that money.  period.  Enjoy the hugs, be there for each other, yank each other off at the company pow wow.  That'd be super.  but they show up because of the money and acceptable conditions.  if they won the lottery tomorrow, you'd have an empty office on Monday morning.  If any one of them had risk to life, limb, family, or pet, and you were vulnerable, they're gonna take.  it's human nature, and it's naive to believe people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations.



No prudent business leaves $250,000 in petty cash lying around the office.  That's really an unrealistic hypothetical. 

And this makes no sense either:  people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations.  No prudent business operates this way. 

I think you probably need to manage a business with employees before you can have an insight on how to manage employees (or a business with employees).  Don't you agree?

The key, like I said earlier, is this:  "But if you do your homework and are a good manager, you will hire, train, develop, and trust excellent and loyal employees."

I just finished a book by John C. Maxwell called "Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know."  Here is an excerpt on trusting employees:

Victorian writer George MacDonald said, "To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."  The Law of Solid Ground in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership states that trust is the foundation of leadership.  While that is true, it can also be said that trust is the foundation of all good relationships, and good friendships all require trust.  If you don't have trust, there can be no open and honest interaction, and the relationship will only be temporary.

Manchester, Inc., a consulting firm in Philadelphia, used a survey of more than two hundred companies to discover the best ways to build trust with employees.  They found that people who engender trust . . .

- Maintain integrity.
- Openly communicate visions and values.
- Show respect for employees as equal partners.
- Focus on shared goals rather than personal agendas.
- Do the right thing regardless of personal risk.
- Listen with an open mind.
- Demonstrate compassion.
- Maintain confidences.

While you cannot control whether people give you their trust, you can control your actions toward them.  And you can determine to give them your trust.  Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson remarked, "The chief lesson I have learned in a long life is that the only way you can make a man trustworthy is by trusting him; and the surest way to make him untrustworthy is to distrust him and show your distrust."

It takes a leap of faith to put your trust in another person, especially someone you don't know well.  Yet that's what it takes to practice the Golden Rule.  As you strive to invest confidence in others in the same way you would like it invested in you, take comfort in the words of Camillo Benso di Cavour, who said, "The man who trusts men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them." 

Ethics 101 at 32-33. 


 


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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #37 on: January 28, 2007, 01:12:19 PM »
No prudent business leaves $250,000 in petty cash lying around the office.  That's really an unrealistic hypothetical. 

And this makes no sense either:  people are "naturally good and can be trusted" without looking at situations.  No prudent business operates this way. 

I think you probably need to manage a business with employees before you can have an insight on how to manage employees (or a business with employee).  Don't you agree?

You can have great success by hiring, training, and treating people right. I agree there.

But despite your best efforts, if 1 in 100 will steal from you, then my agency theory is proven correct.  They come to work because of their own interests, not yours.  Their at-work activities will follow suit.

gtbro1

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #38 on: January 28, 2007, 03:44:12 PM »



You can trust them to operate specific parts of your business.  but you have to trust they'll always put their families, income, rent, relationships, getting laid, and many other things ahead of your longterm business goals.  When these things clash, even if the person is trustworthy, the employee will choose self. 

   You are correct in most situations.I know that if my boss does not make money,he will go out of business and I will not have a job,therefore I often sacrifice what is best for me(in the short term)...because in the long run,what is best for the company IS what's best for me.

ToxicAvenger

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Re: Biggest business mistake you've made in your life.
« Reply #39 on: February 02, 2007, 10:41:54 AM »
not buy lockeed stock before the war  :(
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