Welcome back to Tom engineering. It's great to be with you and wherever you may be in this wonderful world. I hope everything is absolutely superb in your neck of the woods. Today I'm going to share with you a hard learned lesson on dealing with people. There is going to be no sugarcoating with this. And I'm going to share with you a huge lesson that I learned the hard way by screwing up in the mid 90s, my first CEO, Tony, and I met with a gentleman who was to become a partner in one of our businesses.

We met on three occasions and each time the main was 10 or so minutes, like not a big deal, right. Also, I thought after he left a third meeting, Tony asked me if I thought we should bring him on board. I was still young and green and and and you got and and my perspective It was skewed by this guy's talents and abilities that he had sold to us. I wanted to bring him on board, but Tony said this to me, I'll let you make the decision. But if you bring him on board, then you take complete responsibility for him and any associated costs. And it can only be on a limited capacity for three months to begin with.

Now, when I asked why Tony said, Don't worry, it's your call. I'll trust your judgment. So let's play it out and see. So thing the full of vagueness and maybe some would have called me cocky so and so. I brought him on board because obviously I knew best and then the game is begin. First what started to happen was that deadlines that were promised were not being met.

Then there was a never ending list of excuses as to why and when and whatever. And then, To cut a long story short, let's fast forward two months. We're sitting in a dinner Again with this gentleman who I brought onto the team, and he starts telling Tony Nye about a business deal he had that went very, very bad. And I remember Tony asking him a very specific question. Tony said to him. So what did you learn from what happened?

And his response was this, nothing, it was all their fault. And I knew instantly in that split second that I had made a terrible decision in relation to this gentleman. Later that night after he'd left Tony, and I was sitting at the table, and Tony was sitting there silently, as he always did when he wanted me to get the lesson. So, after five or so painful minutes, I broke the signs and said, okay, Tom, I screwed up. I apologize. It's my fault.

And I'll fix it tomorrow morning. First thing, but let me ask How did you know? How did you know he wasn't right? And Tony said this to me. You say Paul, you remember first few meetings with him where he was 10 or so minutes late for each one, remember? And I know at the time that you were thinking, well, 10 or so minutes isn't that much of a big deal, right?

But what 40 years of experience in businesses taught me is that an individual's actions, especially on the little things, is genuine, generally a very reliable indicator as to who they are on the inside. And if they think the little things are not a big deal, then I can assure you, they won't think the big things are either. him being like, not only showed a lack of respect for himself, for you, Paul, alacrity respect for our team as a whole. It often indicates a low self, a low self esteem. And you'll find that these small indicators in more than 95% of cases will indicate the primary modus operandi operandi I should say, of an individual, you will find that in more than 90 5% of cases, these individuals at some point in time will almost certainly either let you down or screw you over. So when you meet them, put your running shoes on and go for the hills.

And anyone who subscribes to the it's all their fault philosophy is definitely not someone you want to be anywhere near, let alone in business with. So what you have to do, Paul is have a little litmus test that allows you to very quickly assess individuals that come into your space. And one of my litmus tests, and you'll find this applies to any big player that you want to do business with. They all subscribe to this is that you turn up on time, and on time means you arrive early. Not on time, because on time is light, and light is a deal breaker. And then, so I would never forget the lesson.

Tony told me I'd be personally carrying 50 percent of the cost this gentleman had bought on the company in the previous eight weeks. And I assure you, I've never forgotten that lesson. So this is your time waster litmus test in 90 to 95% of cases. never engage or involve yourself with people who are late, because they don't respect you. And they will almost always, at some point in time, screw you over or let you down. And be critically aware of people who are unable to learn from their mistakes, take responsibility, but rather spend their time blaming others for their issues.

Now, I've dedicated a specific module to this single piece of content, because it is saved me and I want it to save you immeasurable amounts of pain, heartache and money. Because understanding this principle can mean the literal difference between sinking and sailing is Specially in partnerships, I would rather struggle for a little bit longer with not enough team members on board and have a little less sleep than bring on stay at a stakeholder that will undermine the operation. I truly want you to get a sound piece of business advice, because if you don't, I promise you will make a decision around someone and in two, four or five years, you're going to look back and say, I really wish I'd have listened to that fella. In the next module, what I'd like to do is come back to number of very powerful lessons into a single module.

I'm going to be getting straight to the point with these so please have your pens and paper ready. And until we meet again in the next module, please be superb. think clearly and have an absolutely incredible day.