This got me thinking the other day where initially there was a person who I was willing to help for free a lot because he came across as someone who simply needed help. It’s one of those things where when you have been through the grind you know how helpful it would have been if you got some help and so you envision that person being just like you who would appreciate and benefit your assistance. However, learning from history there are those who will just simply keep taking from you and not giving back.
What I quickly observed is that when I gave him help he would always try and make it sound publicly as if he did everything himself. That’s a red flag as there are often people who are simply try to elevate their own personal profile. Whenever there was a project he wanted to try he would always ask if I can help him for free yet it’s clear he would often try and budget some funds for others in other forms of work. Another red flag. Then, one day he actually told me that he invested a lot of money to try and train himself to use a piece of equipment only to destroy it due to the lack of experience. The funny thing was, he told me he did this as he thought he could then do what I do without having to pay for a service. The odd thing again was that he never gave me any money and nor did I ask for any.
But ever since that day I treated him like any other person where if he wanted my help he would have to pay for it considering everything has shown he simply wanted to acquire my help for free versus actually building a strong business relationship. To do that, I thought it was pretty simple too where you have to try your best to make sure that you are more focused in ensuring you are actually maintaining the business relationship. Like a plant or fruit from trees, if you harvest it you are going to have to start watering the soil as an example and all to have items grow again.
I always find it interesting though when people have the mindset of just taking as much as they can without putting the effort to actually make sure the business relationship is being taken care of on both ends. It wasn’t a surprise to me afterwards on why it seemed like the person has burned so many bridges with people. If your goal is to save money too isn’t it a lot more expensive to try and find new people to help you each time?