People, do you really know what you're getting? Chatting to a mate hear on steemit about the fact that we have both been taken for a ride by business partners and ended up back in the work market we agreed that there are some really slimy and disgusting humans out there and that is not even mentioning the child molesters, rapists, cold blooded murderers and so on.
What goes through my mind is how does one simply screw someone out of what floats their life without batting an eyelid? What kind of mindset must one have to commit any sadistic act towards another person without caring?
I owned a lovely and happy little pub and restaurant in a small town called Howick in the Natal Midlands in South Africa that I had just started when I was approached by a young man who told me that his dad owned a small woodwork company, but that he was worried for his dads little business and wish he could get involved in something else before it was too late, a sort of a retirement venture. I felt bad for the guy, but didn't make any offers of any kind as my pub was fully staffed to what it could afford. The youngster and his dad and girlfriend started coming around more and more, becoming regulars.
We became quite friendly and one afternoon during a braai (bbq) they started setting me up for the kill. By the time these people were done I felt so sorry for the guys dad that I opened myself up for the discussion of taking him on as a partner. He would bring in a beautiful Burmese Tique bar counter with chairs, leather loungers with coffee tables to spruce the place up. We're talking about a lot of money here and it would take the place to another level. I called the place MadHatters bar & Grill after Salvador Dali and his crazy hats and even had some oil prints of Dali works on the walls. I got in a young guy named Josh who used to work for the circus and was an excellent bottle & fire flairer and could mix cocktails like a pro.
The place kicked off with a bang and being who I am I didn't mind the hours as I was doing it for myself and was building my future. My new partner started coming in more often to help out and before I knew it his son and son's girlfriend was helping out as well. I didn't mind that too much as they were his family and it made things easier and they didn't want to get paid. Then they started trying to change rules and ill treat my staff which I put an end to very quickly and that didn't go down well, but that was that.
Things got a little touch after that, but hey rules are rules and mine worked well and business was getting better and better all the time. A few months went by and I started noticing less and less money available from the business. I chatted to my partner who tried to convince me that business was just quiet during his shifts. For about a week I believed him, but became suspicious and started going through all the cash-ups and stock orders. Nothing added up so I booked an appointment with the bookkeeper who proved to be vague at best.
At this time I received a call from a man who claimed to be my partners employer and this set me back as he was supposedly the owner of his company. The man on the phone asked to meet and flew in from Cape Town to see me. He explained that he had started noticing the disappearance of some company funds and some very pricy Burmese Tique and had a private investigator check out his timber manufacturing manager and found that he had been o the take and that the money lead to my pub. I explained what had happened and all the man asked me to do was testify in court against my partner and he would let me keep all the furniture.
Well the partner was dismissed from his job and sued out of partnership in the pub, but what had come out through all this was that he was insolvent and everything he owned was in his wife's name so couldn't be touched. Apart from that he had been in cahoots with the bookkeeper who helped him siphon money from the pub leaving it in the kind of financial shape from which I couldn't recover it as there wasn't enough money coming in to plug all the holes they had caused. I closed the doors, had to find a job and spent five years paying back the debts of a business I no longer owned.
WTF is wrong with some people? How do these people sleep at night having destroyed people that had done nothing to deserve it? I'm surprised that I have managed to keep some faith in people and still want to see good in some although weary, but yes there are still good people out there.
Improvise Adapt & Overcome