Me: "What do you mean I don't get a cut?" I am growing increasingly irate.
"Sorry but you have to show me what you can do for this business." Calm, collected prepared for a confrontation...
Me: " Who pays the staff?!"
"You do..."
Me: "Who pays the rent?"
"You do"
Me: "And who paid for the utensils and materials you used to make this money?"
"You did."
Me: "But I don't get a cut? and you paid your friends/ control the money made from sales.... I've paid close to 100mil (vnd not dollars) so far and you are now collecting money on a weekly basis/ splitting the profit with your friends, money flows out and I see nothing back.... "
" You just don't understand business, you haven't earned your cut, it will go to the operation of the restaurant."
Me: with a bachelors in business and over 15 years of actual experience leading, managing, and being held accountable for my decisions (proceeds to curse this person out for 40 minutes straight, shuts down all non restaurant operations, and reduces all payments for anything business-related down to 50%)
I am labeled as mentally unstable and dangerous, but curiously this person doesn't provide their half of the rent or pay salaries once they are forced to take responsibility for these things...
Proceeds to try to extract the business she built with my money and tries to run her new business on her own with her friends....but it's not so easy now that rent and salaries need to be paid and ingredients need to be paid for....... The con was set but I pulled out too early, if this conversation had happened 3-4 weeks later I would have been done.
"I don't date potential" a girlfriend of mine shared this wisdom 10 years ago and the words ring true.
One of the major lessons I learned this year was to stop "dating potential" those who wrap their business in friendship and other emotions instead of proven competence and results deserve to be ignored. Often, (using dating as an example) those who are truly skilled at the hustle create the emotional space for you to step into, they create a need and allow you to fill it, but a two-way exchange was never intended or desired.