No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Lessons for Young Adults

CHAPTER NINE

YOU NEVER KNOW ANYONE UNTIL YOU DEAL WITH THEIR MONEY

Years ago someone made me a needlepoint pillow with the words that frame this chapter. You never do really know anyone until you deal with their money, because money brings out the best in people and the worst in people. And you can never really tell which it will be until they're in the room, the deal, or the bed with you. People have come to see me who had the reputation of being brutal, impossible. And once they were in the program, they were pussycats, seldom ever even calling unless nudged. The reverse is true in spades. People who seemed, in the interview process, to be lovely, gentle people, became impossible to deal with, cranky, nasty, and dismissive to my support staff. Nothing like they appeared to be. So don't assume anything if you're in the professions that deal with others’ money or souls: law, medicine, real estate, clergy, and sales of all kinds. Not just money management. It's like advice my father gave me, good advice: “Never count anyone else's money. You'll be wrong in both directions.”

So don't assume anything in areas where emotion comes to the forefront. You will get lots of good surprises. And bad surprises.

Early in my writing career (I've had two full-time jobs for all my working life), I had a number of brushes with Hollywood. People wanting to buy or option books of mine. I got a lot of promises that sent me reeling from meetings with visions of Krugerrands spilling from my pockets and ...