For my Father a handshake was a contract. That is how I was reared.
There have ALWAYS BEEN con men and always will. There was no Golden Age when "a handshake was a contract."
I went through a start-up about 20 years back. I worked strictly for equity- -no pay. I insisted that the agreement I and the owner of the start-up had be in writing. He resisted signing it, then "lost" it. I retyped it, shoved it under his nose, and insisted he sign or I would walk. He needed me more than I needed him. He signed.
Without that signed document, I would have gotten nothing. But knowing I had a legally enforceable contract forced him to act at least within the law. When the company IPOed, I got my share of the take. Without that document, I would have gotten nothing. That was thoroughly apparent by then from others he HAD cheated who had trusted him.
Trust the dealer, but cut the cards.
Fraud would not have been hard to prove in this case. Fraud would broken the terms of that written, signed document.
When one meets a person in a workshop on Integrity... Goes to his lavish home,sees him driving a Corvette,meets his wife and children.... and knows he is head of the Board of Realtors ethics committee, one tends to trust. Only later did I find out that the house was rented, back rent owed, car was leased and his wife was in on the deal.
As RCG said, silver-tongued devils. Liars and cheats are restricted to no economic class, appearance, or income level. Ebbers, previously worth hundreds of millions ans who got only the best, will now die in jail. |
