i was at my worst with nothing left
and all the world was blue
and never saw a ray of hope
’til the day that i met you
and while you’re in that place
i give your words back to you
you told me…
you can’t be strong all the time
or keep hiding all the tears
sometimes you have to let it out
and stand your ground to fear
when you feel that all is lost
remember that i’m right here
always.
I think, where I have managed for the past six months to stay so preoccupied with all the events going on in my life, I have no idea what to do now.
Just down in the dumps. Don’t feel good. Blah. Miserable and on a self serving pity party.
I can’t even muster up anything to be sarcastic about. Sorry kid, don’t mean to be a downer.
As a small business owner (and having a resume which looks more the like Fortune 500), life can be a little tough. Ultimately, if you have employees and keep close tabs on things, you’re gonna bear the brunt of every single problem with your company. And too many times in the last few months, it has absolutely nothing to do with the way things are handled — it has to do with the fact that as we grow, as we start gaining customers from given places in the world (yeah, we do a lot of International work, as well), some people are unforgiving asshats.
A few years ago, we did a small contract for a foreign company who was attempting to integrate their billing system so that customers could take their bill to any post office in that country and pay their bill. Unfortunately, the Big Bank didn’t give us any “real” documentation, and none of us had time to fully research it.
However, we knocked it outta the park. I personally figured out the funky math involved, and decided it’d be a stupid thing to ever put money into one of their banks. (Here in the United States, most of us know better than to give out our account numbers and ABN’s anyway…)
Basically what happened was that we were given an impossible task, screwed with by a Big Bank who didn’t wanna release enough information to actually finish the project, and we ended up getting it done anyway. To top it off, after reading our Security Audit, it was mentioned by their “process agent” (Lawyer) that if said Big Bank was ever robbed electronically, we’d be the first people to be contacted … Well, us and some Russian-born Frenchman, by name, who’d initially written the code for the job, but they said they’d changed some security protocol stuff (which was rather pathetic) and figured out how the whole bloody system worked…
End of story, we didn’t get paid for our time. We were required to keep our mouths shut. But now, it’s been five years, and I suggest never keeping any money in a foreign bank — too many of them are the same. 
More recently, I had a client threaten to sue me for being two months late paying his bill. Oh, and being more than a year late on a bill owed to a partner company. Somehow, it was my fault that I couldn’t provide service to someone who continued not to pay.
During a discussion with his “process agent” (Lawyer), I informed him that paying the bill was gonna be far less than the legal fees and court costs to pursue the case, and detailed every bit about why I would win. Mr. Layer actually agreed, given full evidence. I further indicated that said customer would end up having to pay the full amount of his bill, at least double that in his own legal fees, and have to pay mine on top of it. Mr. Lawyer told me that because my case was an open-and-shut, he wouldn’t be pursuing me in court, and would bill his client at two hours of his time at a courtesy.
I also asked Mr. Lawyer if he would pursue me in court if I blogged about it, and he said, “Feel free, just don’t embarrass anyone.”
Kudos, Mr. Lawyer. I’m actually amazed at the professional behavior you displayed today. Seriously … I meet so few lawyers who are able to listen to logic and reason and come to a conclusion. Most of them just want to tear someone a new one, regardless of the merits of a case. So kudos, again, Sir. You’ve managed to cast your profession in a better light where so few of your consituents can.
I mean, my lawyer’s an asshole… *snicker*
As I was saying, you can, as a business owner, attempt to please everyone. But sometimes, it’s absolutely impossible. It takes so much time and energy sometimes to make right a wrong, or make right a perceived wrong that sometimes it’s just not worth it.
What it comes right down to is, if you’re successful, there’s always gonna be someone standing there to knock you down. If you’re honest and at least semi-reliable, you’re gonna get screwed at least once … more, if you’re growing.
No amount of placating, consolation, credit card authorization, contact information or up-close-and-personal-ass-kicking can really “fix” anything if someone doesn’t wanna pay. You can ruin their credit, have it done to you in return, spend all you want in legal fees, and it’s never gonna help. You can’t garnish wages in most states…
You cannot — cannot! — possibly hope to make everyone happy. You do what you can, you try and fix things, and when they’re not working, you’ve just gotta be duck and pretend they’re water.
Some customers are selfish. That’s just a fact of life. The more you have, the more likely you’re gonna have an “asshole customer.” It’s a fact, Jack.
They come to you to make you grovel … to try and think they’re offering you the privilege of taking their money, when in fact, you and your employees are busting your asses to take care of them.
It is for this reason …
I am sick to death of being a business owner. I’ve been doing what I do for 22 years. I am burnt out.
I am an excellent Customer Service Representative. I’m great with concepts, but I just don’t wanna implement any more. Like most natural-born East Tennesseeans, I have a strong work ethic, and I can do anything. Seriously, three months, I can figure out any job to a T. Six months, I’ll have it mastered. I’m meticulous — even anal at times. But primarily, I can talk to anyone.
The first $45K job offer that comes along can have me. I’d settle for that little to get out from under my job stress, and have the stability. Although, I know damn well I’m worth helluva lot more … Seriously.
There’s a contact form … click it if ya’ve got any ideas.
It’s funny to me when someone who you thought of as a friend will put money in front of friendship. Personally, I think that this leads you down the road to a very crappy worldview. But it is somewhat interesting to see how people will act over the essence of probable money. It can turn pseudo-friend into worse that foe; former lovers into insult slinging buffoons or business partners into vicious tax collectors. Unfortunately for me this is an overly large let down. For love of God, you would think that the loss of a loved or the end of ties one would cause all parties involved to want to remember the happy memories of the passed. Never would it drive a wedge between friends or even those you considered almost like family.
Why the reason for the sudden cutting of ties? Simply because one person received something from a loved one that was not a member of his or her biological family. This very seldom thing occurs when debt that should have vanished and be non-existent or sheer greed takes over the body. Now a person in this situation must deal with the repercussions of their own poor decision in order to fulfill a desperate need for attention. It is as if they never got enough time, money, or caring sentiments from anyone. (Which a majority of the other people involved know to be false.)
Second example, the insult slinging buffoon, however is also very similar in behavior to the scum sucking relative. He or she will differ in that during the separation process, he or she will sling names at your friends, family, and your own person. I for instance have become a “vindictive, selfish, unloving, unmotivated, immoral, c*#$sucking a$$hole.”
If I had not realized that this was coming from an insensitive, psychopathic, and lying cesspool of a person I would be taken aback. I hate when a lover-ship sours like a nice white wine. At some point you never get what you invested. Nor do you come anywhere near close to where you started and it sucks the big one. By that point, the only thing unknown about the relationship is how long with the other party keep pestering you?
The worst candidate for pestering you is the business partner when that relationship goes sour. They are slightly more annoying since more of your personal finances tend to be tied into your business. In the same token there is fortunately more distance sometime since it is a legal partnership and can be broken with the assistance of a fabulous mediator. (Wonderful counselor, the prince of peace… well okay, maybe it’s not quite such a divine intervention, it just seems that way sometimes.)
Generally, the repercussions with any of these can (with my involved will,) end on a positive note. In the end the people who irritate or criticize me with no ground to stand on usually go away and leave me be. They quit calling, don’t e-mail, or write letters. Those who choose to drag it out, cause a scene, and raise a ruckus should seek professional help. Why not? Lord knows I will if I fall victim to dealing with any of these unpleasantries.
No, I’ll tell you what obsessive is.
Obsessive is when you sleep, eat and breathe every word out of her mouth. Obsessive is when you need her like air. Obsessive is spending every moment, awake or asleep, longing for her. Obsessive is when you’d eat a plate full of her shit and swear it tasted like roses.
Love is when you realize what you’re doing and let it go.
Third time’s the charm. I am so over it.
A few months ago, I went out with a couple of friends (Gina and Joe) and had a fun time. In trying to make sure Joe was okay to drive (he ran from the car) I inadvertently dropped my phone in her backseat.
Long story short, one of her workmates, Paula, volunteered to bring me the phone, and I agreed. She didn’t bring it to me, however. Instead, she threw it out her window in Halls, TN (where I definitely do not live) and ignored all attempts at contact.
Fortunately, an older gentleman named Wade ended up with the phone (picked up from a ditch and put it in his mailbox by his postwoman, he said). He called me, from my phone, and arranged to get the phone back to me. Thank God for honest people in the world.
Last night, a friend of mine called Paula and let her have it. In turn, Gina calls me to scream at me so much I have to walk outside from where I was to hear her. She calls me a liar, tells me that I had fabricated the entire story and that she’s told my friends, they believe her, and blah blah blah blah whiney, idiotic garbage.
This is overly dramatic for me, and whole lot of them can screw off.
Another asshat has been hanging around telling people he’s a race car driver, with millions of dollars, million dollar contracts, and he’s gonna start paying three of us at the first of January.
He told me that he lived in a 4000 sq ft house and wanted me to secure it and run Ethernet around it. Told me had a four bay garage where he keeps his race cars, and one of the bay doors is torn off because he and a friend came home drunk and couldn’t get it open to park the truck — so they rammed it.
He told me that he has a private jet, and has invited us all out on several occasions, but never follows through.
He’s told us all that he owns Tennessee Racing, Inc.
He’s an IMCA driver and points leader.
He’s on Team ARCA.
He’s a NASCAR driver.
He was in Daytona this weekend with Teresa and Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
Needless to say, he hasn’t paid any of us a cent. ”My racing license was revoked, and I’m trying to get it back.” Of course, he’s already told me that one, and that he did get it back. “Yeah, but I went this weekend and got it back.” Of course, he’d already told me that they’d reinstated him the week before. But that’s also been mixed with, “I might be going to jail,” “All my assetts are frozen by the court,” and “I have to go to Europe to hide from some very bad people.” Of course, those things have changed, too. “The judge let me off even though she hates me,” “I have more money than the courts know about,” and “I said I was gonna to Europe to hide after I hurt the guy who was molesting my daughter.” But no, he didn’t. He’s talked himself into both a corner and poverty.
About the house: “Oh, well, I haven’t bought it yet. I was looking at four, but they were out of my price range. I only have $750K and need $1.2M.” I can’t help but wonder why he’d crash the garage doors on a house he doesn’t own, then? He lives in a crappy apartment in South Knoxville.
Why doesn’t his pilot file flight plans? “I didn’t know they were supposed to.” Yeah, that pilot stuff might elude him, especially since he claims to have had a pilot’s license.
Tennessee Racing, Inc. doesn’t exist? “Yeah, I registered that in Iowa.” No, not there either..
He’s not on the IMCA list.
Team ARCA’s never heard of him.
NASCAR certainly hasn’t ever heard of him.
Teresa and Dale Jr. have had a parting of ways and certainly haven’t sat down to dinner together, much less together with anyone else. And since Dale Jr. has been busy with the Nextel Cup and giving press releases about the future of DEI & his younger brother, Kerry, it’s pretty much an impossibility that our dear-old-bullshitter had dinner with just him, even.
“Well, maybe I should just not come around if it’s gonna be like that!”
“Good idea. BYE!”
Besides, I doubt Dale Jr. would take time out of his busy schedule to have dinner with a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman.
I declare this a Drama Free Zone.
Take it outside — we don’t need that crap in here.
