Wanna' Play?

As a young, eager, self-employed accountant, every client was precious and every paid invoice was life-sustaining. A practice is built on referrals, goodwill, and quality service. Many clients have tendrils that connect to other clients. They come by word of mouth and they leave the same way. 

A client I wasn't especially fond of was going through the bankruptcy process. His attorney was the network to other clients that were solid and are still clients to this day. The attorney pressured an arrangement for our mutual client for my work of three years of raw documents to be turned into books, financial statements, and tax returns with the promise of full payment after the court had what it needed and the process was complete. This was not my normal method of billing, collecting, and proceeding after payment in incremental steps.

Needless to say, the client stiffed me and the attorney shrugged.

When 45 (DJT) was first exposed as a man who stiffed contractors and other providers with methods that gave no option but to take what was offered or spend money small companies don't have to get what was rightfully due, the old feelings of rage and helplessness came flooding back. These were not disputes of quality or completion; this was standard business practice, a gamer who plays dirty.

The ball is in motion for 45 to finally see the consequences of playing dirty but it won't change who he is. It won't change who any of them are. 

Last night, a Russian child athlete, a skater of the utmost skill and elegance, lost her expected gold medal because of the dirty players who control her life. These dirty players are currently surrounding Ukraine and swearing they don't have an ace up their sleeve, swearing we aren't seeing what we are seeing. The stakes are great, much greater than an unpaid invoice or a gold medal. There are people whose lives are at risk. The demands of the dirty player are nebulous but the threats are clear. Already there has been a strike at a children's school.

Why do we continue to play with dirty players? Because of the tendrils. Because of the "if-then" quandaries. If we don't let them play we risk some fallout in the network.

There will always be the entitled dirty player. Through trial and reward they have learned that taking what they want by any means is to their advantage, it works. And it's always at the expense of another. 

I have no doubt that the client who went bankrupt was never successful and 45 who now faces a deep dive into his fraudulent practices will be brought to his knees. There are ways to disarm a country and our current POTUS is well aware of how to implement them, financially, economically, socially, and physically if necessary although not preferred. 

Cheaters never win the long game.