The soap opera's over, hopefully...

I thought today's post was going to be boring.

I was hoping that I was going to be able to bring one of my investment partnerships to a conclusion and say it ended gentlemanly. Then the rest of the post would have been training related.

Unfortunately it didn't end up that way. It started that way. We came to an agreement with an cordial conclusion, and then 2 hours later the wheels fell off.

It started with a final deal that was not exactly what I was looking for, but I was prepared to accept it to put this situation behind me. The deal wasn't worth a lot of money.

I've got to say, in all the years I've been in business and although this is not a big investment, it's the only one I've had a major difference of option with the other party. I've never felt so strongly certain on my position. I could feel it in my bones and was fighting the situation from a position of "Justice".

Essentially, in my opinion, the other side was being unreasonable and disrespectful to me personally. The "lack of respect" was my number one issue, especially after I significantly helped them out recently. I can deal with differences in opinions and difficult negotiations, that's business, but I can't deal with people who don't take seriously a matter that they knew was very important to me and then drag on negotiations based solely on their timetable and total disregard for mine.

Anyways, the early part of the day was uneventful, a deal was made and I thought it was behind me. THEN I received this email from one the other party's "advisors". These guys are joined at the hip on their opinions and decisions.

The email read:

Just thought I'd tell you that someone with balls wouldn't put that kind of sh*t on a blog

You f#cking crybaby

My reply was

"F#ck yourself".

After reading the email, I had the following thoughts. The first was, "obviously they haven't ever read my blog, I'm not selective. I let it all hang out there, warts and all." Heck, just ask John Barclay, when I put my "I need new friends", which was a stupid post and I later apologized for and felt bad about.

The second was "the final result of the deal could have been made 30 days ago, it wasn't rocket science, it was pretty simple. Had it come to a conclusion back then, it wouldn't have been blog worthy. Heck, even last week it wouldn't have been blog worthy".

The final thought was, "why couldn't they let sleeping dogs lie? It was a small amount of money and we both compromised. Why take it to a personal level? There was no detail in yesterday's blog post".

The irony is that I was going to send a "poison pill" email before I was contacted with their offer. I was on my bike and severely ruminating. I stopped and started typing the email.

Then a strong cyclist passed by me. I took it as a sign to abort the email, it wasn't meant to be. It's rare I find someone who can ride at my speed and who I can talk with. I didn't want to pass it up, especially on a long ride.

The guy I started riding with was Tibor. His picture is above. He is exactly 1 month older than me, immigrated from Hungary, is a semi-truck driver and just got back into bike racing after 15 years.

We rode together for about 40 minutes and after we parted, I received an email from the other party with an acceptable compromise. I called the key guy and talked it through and personal disaster was averted. It seemed like a cordial relationship was going to be possible again.

Then "The Advisors" email arrived. It wasn't gas on an open wound, it was Napalm.

In my mind, it was just another reflection of how the other side has digressed and it was the final straw on trying to salvage any sort business or personal relationship. The only fortunate side of this whole mess, is that I'll never have to do business or spend time with any of these guys ever again.

If "Mr Napalm" or "Mr Turtle" want to reply to THIS post (actually, I didn't realize either of them even read the blog) send me another email, go for it. Maybe it will be so interesting that it will generate some more donations to the TPPF and make up for the financial compromise I made, that would at least be a positive out of this mess.

Truthfully, I was surprised how fast they could respond to something when they want to.

Life is too short, I don't need people like them in my life, it's all negative energy. For every door that closes another one opens. Although it was unsettling. We used to have a good relationship.

Si La Vie.

On the training front, I went LONG and it was HOT. With humidex, it was 38 C / 100 F. I didn't know the temperature as I was riding, but it felt a few degrees away from Ironman China, without the strong wind. Today's wind was only 6 kph.

I was really happy with today's training sessions. I was able to maintain a decent speed, both on the bike and on my brick run. The heat didn't bother me at all, other than stopping twice for fluids and for the first time ever, I had a Coke. It tasted SO good. I was loving it so much that if that moment was filmed, it would have been commercial worthy.

The beautiful part was that I did all my days business of the Carbon Horse. Throughout the ride I had to stop, email and make phone calls. It was so cool. It was the modern day approach to doing business on the golf course. I actually accomplished a great deal today.

The best call of the day was from a very large customer that has decided to use us to produce their work. The buyer was VERY thorough and pragmatic during his evaluation and it wasn't an easy deal to get. I think it may work out to the the largest account I've ever sold.

Aside from the business speed bump along the way and some unnecessary rumination, today was a very productive day. What made it even more lucrative was a new $30 donation from David O'Sullivan @sully1969 on twitter. He's from Nashville and I eventually will end up visiting there for some reason, and when I do, I'm going to look him up and we'll have beers. I GUARANTEE IT!!!

That's the other "Training Payne Guarantee". If you donate money and I come to your City, I'm looking you up and we're going for beers.

Long Bike - 6:26:14 / 193.22 km / 30.0 kph avg / 138 avg hr

Brick Run - 30:31 / 5.95 km / 5:07 pace / 144 avg hr

32 C with Humidex 38 C