Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Take great caution when you enter an endeavor with someone who has far more experience than you.

There are occasions in life when we enter a financial agreement in a terribly unbalanced relationship.

One example: a parent dies. I am arranging the funeral, i.e., I am paying for it. I go to the funeral parlor. They arrange funerals several times a day and have been doing this for 20 years. I have never done it before.

A second example: I have written a book and want it published. This is a non-fiction technical book. The publisher publishes 20 books a year like mine and has done so for 50 years. This is my first book AND my first book-publishing contract.

Yikes! I am in trouble.

Well, today—unlike the first time I arranged a funeral and the first time I signed a book-publishing contract—we can go to the Internet and search “things to know the first time you…” That is a tremendous help. A TREMENDOUS help. Please do that.

Regardless, be aware:

1. You are in an unbalanced relationship.
2. You are on the short-end of the experience scale.
3. The other party can easily take advantage of the unbalanced teeter totter.