Friday Forward - Bad Deal (#489)

Good partners don’t fall back on the fine print when things get tough

A few weeks ago, I caught up with a friend who was working on a new initiative. To support the launch, he’d hired a firm I happened to know. When I asked how things were going, he hesitated, then offered one of those vague responses that says a lot with a little: “It’s…okay.”

That told me everything I needed to know.

As he explained, the agency’s team experienced some unexpected turnover just a few weeks before the launch. While my friend understood the circumstances, that didn’t change the fact that the engagement produced an underwhelming output at a high cost.

When my friend raised the issue with the firm’s owner, the response was basically, “The contract is the contract, and we don’t guarantee results.” The firm failed to acknowledge the personnel changes or the firm’s inability to deliver the outcomes that would justify their considerable fee.

In effect, the company hid behind their contract, rather than taking responsibility for the poor outcome.

That conversation reminded me of a situation earlier in my career, when my team was hired to audit the work of a company managing an affiliate program. What we found was alarming: the company hadn’t done any meaningful work in months. Some internal turnover on the client’s side had led to a lack of oversight, and the vendor had simply continued to collect payments without delivering value. When we brought this to the client’s attention, they approached the vendor and asked to cancel the agreement.

The company’s response? “You can’t, you’re under contract.” No reflection. No accountability. Just an insistence on terms, not outcomes.

That moment stuck with me. I was shocked by how tone-deaf the company was and vowed to never take that approach.

There’s nothing wrong with having contracts. They’re necessary to protect both parties from serious breaches and bad actors. And while the two examples above are vendors acting poorly, I’ve also seen the reverse scenario, where a new client contact tries to terminate an agreement, not because of performance issues, but because they want to bring in their own team or change strategy. Sometimes, in these cases, the client will bend the truth or look for loopholes to exit an agreement in bad faith. That’s not right either.

Contracts matter, but what’s more important is the spirit in which they’re upheld. Using a contract as a shield to justify underperformance—or worse, to avoid accountability—is the business equivalent of hiding behind a technicality. Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s right.

The best relationships, business or otherwise, aren’t defined by contract terms. Instead, they’re built on the integrity of the people who sign those contracts.

One company I’ve had the opportunity to get to know over the past few years is NorthPoint Development. They’ve earned a reputation as a great place to work, but what stands out most is their website: beyondthecontract.com. That name says everything about how they operate. Their partnerships are built on trust, mutual respect and beneficial outcomes, not just minimum deliverables and legal language. Their model encourages shared ownership, long-term thinking, and doing right by partners regardless of the fine print.

We’ve all heard the adage: You can’t do a good deal with a bad person, and you can’t do a bad deal with a good person. Contracts may provide the structure, but character determines the experience. If you’re at the point in a relationship where parties are quoting contract language as a main line of defense, the relationship probably fractured a while ago and is headed for a downward spiral.

Every business agreement carries risk. Markets shift. People leave. Strategies evolve. But the strongest partners don’t fall back on the fine print when things get tough. They step up, communicate honestly, and aim to do right by each other. That’s what builds trust, loyalty, and reputation in the long run. If a contract becomes the only thing holding a relationship together, then that relationship is not worth the paper the contract’s written on.

Quote of The Week

“You can’t do a good deal with a bad person, and you can’t do a bad deal with a good person.” – Warren Buffett

Have a great weekend!

-Bob
robertglazer.com

PS: Preorder The Compass Within in hardcover to get my core values course for free.