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The kind that says, “I know something you don’t.”
“Cameron, you’re great at the technical stuff, the nuts and bolts, process maps, and efficiency metrics and all that. But let’s be real, I’m the face of this company, the closer. You handle operations because that’s what you’re good at.
I sat there processing that for a second. Six years of partnership, six years of building something together, and suddenly I’m just the guy who handles operations while he plays golf and takes credit. “We’re equal partners, Jordan.
50/50 split.”
“That means equal work on paper, sure, but who brings in the revenue? Who has the relationships? Who gets the contract signed?”
He leaned back in his chair like he was settling into a comfortable position for a lecture.
“You think clients sign because of spreadsheets and process maps? They sign because they trust me. Because I take them to nice dinners and play golf at their country clubs and make them feel confident we can fix their problems.”
“And then I’m the one who actually fixes their problems,” I said.
“Right? You do the technical work, I do the relationship work, different skill sets, but if you want to talk about compensation structure, I’m open to it. Maybe we need to acknowledge that rainmaking and relationship management are more valuable than the actual work that generates results.”
He shrugged.
That should have been my wakeup call.
Should have been the moment I started protecting myself. Instead, I told myself he was stressed, that he was going through something, that we’d work it out like adults. Classic mistake, giving people the benefit of the doubt when they’ve already shown you exactly who they are.
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