This is a very refreshing approach. In a day where lawyers, contracts, and debt collectors are so prevalent, it is nice to see that respect and honesty still work. Used to be that a handshake was enough -- now a legal contract isn't even guaranteed to work.
I would suspect if one is willing to honestly and openly communicate with your customers when conflicts come up, instead of hiding behind lawyers, the results would be much better.
I read quite a lot of business biographies, and I have noticed that a lot of really successful entrepreneurs go on trust and handshakes. If they're burned they will remember and never do business with you again, but if they meet someone that believes in them at an early stage they will go through a lot to keep doing business with them.
I just read a biography of a guy that started a chain of stores 30 years ago, and has a huge empire of more than 500 stores today. He still has the same small bank that he did 30 years ago because they were the only ones that believed in him at the time. He recently invested in the bank since they needed to become bigger to keep his growing business.
Indeed. There's also the pattern, first anecdotal but since confirmed by at least one survey [+], that a disproportionate number of entrepreneurs are dyslexic, and thus have to rely on verbal communication and gut trust more than others.
I did an MBO 6 years ago and it was striking. All the people who were genuinely helpful did business on a handshake. All those who were ultimately a waste of time, space and occasionally oxygen, insisted on having everything in writing. It was a 100% correlation, and a real eye-opener.
Comments
This is a very refreshing approach. In a day where lawyers, contracts, and debt collectors are so prevalent, it is nice to see that respect and honesty still work. Used to be that a handshake was enough -- now a legal contract isn't even guaranteed to work.
I would suspect if one is willing to honestly and openly communicate with your customers when conflicts come up, instead of hiding behind lawyers, the results would be much better.
I read quite a lot of business biographies, and I have noticed that a lot of really successful entrepreneurs go on trust and handshakes. If they're burned they will remember and never do business with you again, but if they meet someone that believes in them at an early stage they will go through a lot to keep doing business with them.
I just read a biography of a guy that started a chain of stores 30 years ago, and has a huge empire of more than 500 stores today. He still has the same small bank that he did 30 years ago because they were the only ones that believed in him at the time. He recently invested in the bank since they needed to become bigger to keep his growing business.
It's all about trust for these people.
Indeed. There's also the pattern, first anecdotal but since confirmed by at least one survey [+], that a disproportionate number of entrepreneurs are dyslexic, and thus have to rely on verbal communication and gut trust more than others.
[+] http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/media/stories/story_8_45816_44300...
That is a really eye-opening and interesting study.
I took the liberty of submitting it, since I'm sure other people will appreciate it. Hope you don't mind.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=462767
Not at all! Stories/ideas/memes aren't owned.
Though, it's a duplicate:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=86875
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=87148
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=91738
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=87549
I did an MBO 6 years ago and it was striking. All the people who were genuinely helpful did business on a handshake. All those who were ultimately a waste of time, space and occasionally oxygen, insisted on having everything in writing. It was a 100% correlation, and a real eye-opener.