Sometimes life is so unpredictable, it is also sad. I can accept anything but deceit and somehow sometimes things don't always go to plan.

We had a common property which we sold back then but without any form of proof, i was told about 4 months later after the OTP that the buyer couldn't get a loan. He was acting as their agent and doing it for free.

As most of my funds were locked into investments and one friend i helped a little had financial issues and i had to pay for him first. I at first offered to refund more but he was upset when i offered to give back 70-80% and said i treated them as a beggar and refused the offer. I told him i didn't mind giving back more than that if they are friends but got a pretty rude response back lecturing me how to do business and not mix personal with business. But then this is business, if it was strictly business, then there should have not been any arm twisting to do a refund as we exchanged more than 10 emails just on the subject. It was clear cut that they missed the deadline. Even this started out of an email to check on the status and it was only after that i got the notice from him about the possible bank loan refusals.

When i missed the deadline on my deals because of my fault, i paid my dues and late interest. Some cases i forfeited the deposits and did not quibble as this is business after all. Even some of my neighbours, if the person cannot go ahead with the deal due to loans, valuation etc, they just didn't show up anymore and when i called them on their behalf, they were even embarrassed to talk further and told my friends that they were apologetic and to please keep the deposit. My real estate friends and even one of them who was his friend privately told me i didn't have to pay a single cent as it was way past the deadline.

He then kindly offered to give me a loan so that i can pay his buyers back but i didn't want to burden him and sincerely thanked him for the offer as he said he also had finances issues. I still believe him when he said, he made full payment back of his share of the deposit. Somehow i got the impression he had promised them a full repayment even for my share if the deal didn't go through and probably without discussing with me.

Subsequently, i proposed a small token sum to be given back, he got upset and said i had promised 70-80, i told him he had refused my offer outright and the circumstances had changed by then. He got very angry and said i benefited X amount of dollars even though he forgot that the amount due to me is before taking off the amount. He accused me of locking in profit when i made it clear from the start that we can give the buyers more time but that they need to ensure they will go ahead with the deal as we will have to forfeit once they passed the deadline.

Regardless, i still wanted to and I even wanted to get a bank loan just to pay back. My wife chided me, told me what my friends said was true, even if i gave back 100% or more, if he continues to chooses to misunderstand me, there is absolutely nothing i can do. Even if i pay more, he is going to think i am using money to insult him. There was a time when i had less than 20 RM in my bank account and i still cobbled together 100 RM to give him as a gift. I just felt i had to show my appreciation and gratitude but somehow the misunderstandings just grew deeper and he said thank you for my "kindness"

Perhaps our friendship was never as solid as i thought. Again, i am not blameless, i was upset by the way i was treated and misunderstood. I felt, to be taken as insulting people with money when one doesn't have any is actually an insult in itself. So i kept my distance after that.

No matter, i guess its a matter of perception, he must have thought i was doing very well but didn't know that a friend of mine played quite a few guys out and i had to help cover back then as i was the introducer and felt compelled to make the deal right.

I even honoured and sold things cheaply even though others gave me a better offer subsequently, a deal is a deal. I guess that is something that only my wife understands about me.

Anyway, if you are still reading this, hope that you are having a much better time than i did.
Back to work for me but wishing you a great weekend.

I left a partnership early this year and looking back, i was glad i did as it spiraled towards dictatorship towards the end. No one is to be blamed as communication is a two way street. Perhaps i am a poor partner as well.

Been going through the toughest 6 months i ever had. Lots of turbulence, from simple misunderstandings to even having someone saying i insult people with money when they are just assuming without even knowing what i was going through at that time. I knew what was happening behind my back but i choose to keep quiet out of respect, gratitude and friendship. Instead still offered opportunities to work together but it was refused outright.

Perhaps it was not meant to be given my lack of social skills and every time i thought to introduce a deal, someone will remind me of how it was refused and discouraged me from continuing to offer. Still i did twice more but there was just no response. I even went to his place a couple of times but though the car was there, perhaps the person wasn't.

I am still very full of gratitude towards the person even though business did not proceed as planned. I guess my idea of a partnership back in November last year was very different, to me a partner represent making a decision and then moving forward together once agreement is reached. It should not be dictated by just one party but through consensus. Both himself and myself rejected quite a few potential partners who have offered us at different times but i guess it was not meant to be.

Worse case is to point out things (both good or bad) to people which i have a bad habit of doing. Towards the end, my folks told me to just move on. It was indeed a learning experience for me. It was also funny that the people so cordial and nice to him today were the very people who kept asking me to break off contact with him as soon as the deal was over. It was easy to say but very hard as we were also living near to each other.

I really enjoyed the good chats we had as we learned from each other, it was probably one of the best times i had.

Then some folks went behind my back and contacted some of my friends for deals. I understand, just because i don't try to contact their doesn't mean that others can't but if forces my friends to have to choose and sometimes the length of time the choice did take some time. I just kept quiet and pretended not to know but sometimes its better not to know than to know. I choose to ignore for the first 2-3 folks he approached until it became a litle sneaky. All this while i offered to work with that person or introduce my friends to him.

Even my friends offered him to do joint deals but in front of me, the deals was refused outright, only to continue behind my back and when he refused to do joint deals with me, my friends were forced to choose, to repay them, i informed my staff not to charge them anything at all. Perhaps because some deals went to my firm, he thought i must have gotten commissions but truth be told i didn't. The stakeholders will know the truth.

Didn't know how i made it back then. There was a lot of uncertainty with my work then and it was a real challenge trying to balance life, work and business. Especially with work as together with all the commitments and last minute changes to both work and business, i really got tired.

To a point that i was barely hanging on every day but i still put on a brave front and worked straight day and nights just to get things done.

In the end, communication was kept to a minimum between us and i must say i must have offended him with my choice of words or communication medium. I blamed myself for the longest time and even changed settings to stop updates and to restrict access to my postings on Facebook just in case he thought i was showing off.

I really thought highly of our friendship, i still think highly of him and his family no matter what happened. Still remember the silly me, giving radio control cars to his kids and playing with them with my kids after what i thought was the end of their school day. But the anger his wife showed that time when calling them back really was a bit sad.

It really deterred me from talking to him and going over for a long time as i felt very unwelcomed.