

Would You Trust Less a Business Partner Who Cheats on His/Her Spouse? - mhb
http://ben.casnocha.com/2008/12/would-you-trust-less-a-biz-partner-who-cheats-on-hisher-spouse.html

======
pseingatl
The issue isn't trust, or relationships. The issue is lawyers and how being
dragged into litigation will affect the business. If the relationship goes
into divorce, you can expect having to answer subpoenas, depositions and other
discovery yourself. Now your legal budget just jumped, and you can't
accurately budget for litigation. If the significant other of your partner is
married, maybe their soon-to-be ex-significant other involves you in
litigation as well. Maybe the scorned individual believes that your business
isn't being run on the up and up. So they report you to the SEC, IRS, FBI, who
knows? There is a buttload of woe awaiting you in case any of these things
happens. So in this modern world, at least in the United States, your business
partner is exposing the business to greater risk because of his actions.
Recognize that your partner should shoulder the additional costs, because
there will be additional costs and lawyers. If you're lucky, everyone is an
adult and keeps the personal personal. But that's more aspirational than
reality.

------
russell
"Bottom Line: I think less of a person who cheats on their partner, but in a
professional context I do not distrust him/her altogether. I just trust them
less."

Personally, I probably wouldn't know. People dont confide such things in me
and I dont look for it. If it is just one more example of untrustworthy
behavior, probably I would take it into consideration. If it's just something
in a relationship, it's none of my business.

------
sho
Like everything, it would depend on the circumstances. You can't directly
compare emotional and sexual behaviour with business trust. So I would draw a
pretty "hard" line, in the language of the article.

The sex part is almost irrelevant. What would matter is how they did it, just
like anything else. If they were a complete asshole about it, I'd "note" that,
just like I'd "note" any other obvious asshole-ish behaviour, which is
obviously bad. If they were discrete, good natured, trying to meet their needs
while keeping everyone happy - isn't that a good thing?

Hell, I'd be inclined to look negatively on someone who _didn't_ cheat if they
obviously wanted/needed to. Stuck in a passionless marriage and unwilling to
do something about it out of fear/devotion to "tradition"/don't want to upset
parents, etc? That would lead me to question their ability to act and take
risks. If they wanted to but thought they couldn't get away with it, I'd look
down on that as being insufficiently devious. Etc.

Look, marriage is not perfect or even unambiguously good. It's an artificial
institution which, in many cases, is imposed on people by society. We could
discuss this all day but bottom line, it's a complex and "tainted" subject and
almost completely different from other types of trust and honesty. You might
as well ask if you "trust less" someone who cheats on video games.

On the other hand, this article rings of self-righteousness. In my opinion,
those who make a big deal about the moral deviations of others usually have
plenty to hide themselves. So reading that article certainly makes me trust Mr
Casnocha less, sure, now that I'm wondering why he feels the need to loudly
proclaim his virtue. Regardless, I could certainly do without his sermonising,
and lack of understanding of the human condition, if I ever had to do business
with him.

------
keltecp11
Good question. Definitely something I 'note'

