Conduct Business Honorably! …and know when you should quit in business!
Conduct business honorably! Outside of my academic work, I’m a proud small business owner and deal with attorneys on a regular basis. In order to stay current on legal matters, I also subscribe to Mass. Lawyers Weekly, which beyond its weekly print publication sends daily email blasts. One article this morning entitled “For real estate lawyers, important to know when to quit” (authors Justin M. Perrotta and Michael Pill— Justin gets bonus points being an Eagle), struck me as having some relevant lessons for business. The gist of their piece is knowing when to appropriately go for your adversary’s jugular, versus letting sleeping dogs lie. But, in all cases, conduct your affairs honorably.
Due to copyright restrictions, I can’t paste the entire article here, but per written permission from Noah Schaffer at Mass. Lawyers Weekly, here is some relevant content:
“The best advice for counsel…would have been for them to do what was minimally honorable — play by the rules of their game. But, as happens all too often when phalanxes of attorneys become involved, improvident advice bred the instant lawsuit, which in turn bred the appeal now before us. This matter has consumed a great deal of court time (at two levels) and, no doubt, has caused the parties to spend a massive amount on legal fees.
The lesson to be learned from these cases is that lawyers should consider whether the time, expense, uncertainty of outcome, and stress of potential litigation are justified by the benefit to be gained for the client. It may be in the client’s best financial interest simply to honor a contract, seek a reasonable compromise settlement of a dispute, or let the matter drop.”
As I often tell my MBA students, during your career you’ll almost certainly be either on the losing side of a deal or find yourself with an unfair (positive) advantage due to a grossly misinformed counterparty. No matter how tempting it might be to do otherwise, always be honorable and do the right thing, even if it harms your financial or strategic position.
