This is a topic that I could probably go on about for a long time, I am going to do my best not to do that but no promises. This is a topic I know a lot of you will have a lot in common with because it involves “Friends“, “Homeboys“, Homegirl”, Homeslices” or whatever else you might refer to them as. Everyone has them, everyone has had friends they are no longer friends with for one reason or another and everyone has that back stabbing, fake to your face asshole of a “Friend” as well.
Through the years and working for other companies it seemed you always ended up friends with whoever you worked with and some of those friendships continue through the years even after you don’t work there anymore. Once I started my own business things changed, when starting your own business you typically hire people you know which includes a few Family members and of course “Friends”. Seems that most other people that I know that own business’s also follow or followed the same foot steps.
I am happy to know I am not the only one that starts a business and makes this mistake. Those of you that don’t own a business are sitting there wondering why I would say that hiring “Friends” is a mistake, I will be more than happy to explain why in this post. We have owned out own business now for a little over seven years, in that time I have hired around eight “Friends” or what I would have considered really good friends.
You will quickly learn in business that hiring “Friends” just doesn’t work out, before owning my own business, hiring my own friends and th experience of dealing with those friends in the work place I would have automatically assumed that in hearing from other’s business disasters when it came to hiring their friends that those issues were typically because the owner changed. Knowing what I know today through experiences of hiring “Friends” is that I couldn’t have been more incorrect with my assumption. What I have seen through the years is that it’s typically the “Friend” Employee that changes and not the “Friend” Owner. I have seen friends decide that for some reason or another they have a right to own a portion of the business, the very business I poured money, time, energy and emotion into for years. I have seen “Friends” sit behind a desk and be completely useless for extended periods of time, as if they would accept it if they stopped getting paid for extended periods of time and be o.k with it. I have seen “Friends” jump through hoops and run around with their mouth open ready to do whatever to get what they want, meanwhile if you ask them to do something they have no problem putting it to the side or blowing it off, than when you bring it up to them they give you some three year old excuse as to why it didn’t get done and they sit there and believe you actually bought their bullshit. I have seen these same “Friends” fall asleep at their desk, come in late for their normal shift but be right on the dinner bell like a fucking union worker when it’s time to go home.
The amazing thing about these “friends” is that they constantly feel they have a right to be paid more money simply because they are your “Friend” or because they have been a fixture in your life for some period of time. The same people I am referring to when I say “Friends” are the same people we have taken to places like Jamaica, Antigua, Cozumel, Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, and Vegas time and time again. The same people you treated to 1000′s of drinks, 100′s of meals, a place to stay and made them part of your family for years than decide for no good reason that they can come and go as they please, talk shit about you behind your back and get to a point where they can’t even respond to invitations to parties or events because they got wrapped up in situations where they no longer have control of their own situations, or better yet they don’t even have enough self respect and class to include people that included them in EVERYTHING for years, in anything they do… fuckin jokes for human beings.. These same great “Friends” that call you when their bitch dumps them and they want to go out on the hunt, these same people that will stand and point and say someone else changed are truly the one’s that changed.
This Young Buck song War with your Homeboys has some lyrics that match up to some of the many Business and Non Business related Friends I have seen through the years, wrapped up with the perfect corus… “Smile in your face, all the time they wanna take your place. Backstabbers, Backstabbers.”
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR5cW-AqsDQ[/youtube]
My father always told me when I was a kid and I thought I was hot shit with a bunch of “Friends” that I had no idea what “Friends” were and I would learn, he always said, “You think you hot shit with all of your Friends, just wait and see how many of those friends are still around in Ten Years, if your still talking to them after ten years than call them your friends.” My father pretty much nailed it on the head, his years might have been a little off but regardless his point is understood. To those “friends” of the past I have no regrets I take it all in stride, trust me it was a learning experience and there were certainly some great memories in there. If anything I can only hope that in time those people will sit back and think, “Ya know he really hasn’t ever done a fucking thing to me, but I’ve done some shitty things to him.” Most of them won’t ever say it and most of them aren’t man enough to even think it, but deep down inside they know it’s true which makes me completely cool with it.
Closing this one up it’s really sad, it’s sad that because of others owners typically have to change how they really intended and enjoyed doing business in the beginning because of others actions. If everyone stuck to the game plan that was part of the package when things first started everything would have been much different. It’s sad to have those people you treated and thought of as extended family members decide that for all the wrong reasons they stepped outside of the extended family and took a position against that same family that would have taken a bullet for you. If only they would think about that, think about how many times THIS GUY bent over backwards for your ass and while he was bending over backwards you were sharpening your back stabbing knife to stick in my back only AFTER you got what you wanted, and they get plenty…. Flights, Money, Gifts, Trips to see family, “Loans” they never pay off, games whatever else is convenient for them.
Boys and girls do yourself a favor and don’t hire friends and family, neither can really handle the pressures of everyday business and in time they will assume the “World owes me” position which will begin to destroy the relationships you only hoped would grow from the experience. This is not limited to just hiring friends and this post isn’t solely about the friends and family I have hired that actually do kick some serious ass and we continue to have great relationships, it includes those fake fucks everyone has come across in their life, only calling when they need something and it’s convenient for them, and it includes the Back Stabbers who know exactly who they are. To the true friends I love you baby, you know who you are. To all you Fake, Unappreciative, Using, Back Stabbing fucks , your gonna get yours, I promise you will and your going to sit back and think, “Wow I really fucked myself.” and I will think, “Finally the fakes are out of my life” and breath a nice clean breath of fresh air.
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