This afternoon, I met up with this lady (who got my contact through My Paper reporter after reading my feature on it earlier this month).
In her earlier email to me, she thought that my past experience and my family background is quite similar with her husband. And in fact, her husband is on the verge of filing bankruptcy after owing more than $100,000 to various debtors (including the credit card bills and loans from friends etc).
She just needs some advices, which initially I was not even sure I'm the right person to consult her. But then, I talked to her for almost one hour and realised her husband was in this state because of business. Her husband is operating a car rental business and has been spending quite a lot on entertaining his business clients, causing his downfall now.
Personally for me, if you need to spend thousands and thousands to woo these clients, these are really the 'indecent' guys! And seriously, I think it's not worthwhile to run a business, spend great pile to open up the bottles to ensure their clients are with you. As I'm not someone who entertain, I despise these people who need to be entertained before giving the deals. A simple dinner and a simple coffee are more than sufficient.
A lesson to learn: Do business with integrity and merits. Do not do business using or receiving 'bribes'.
I may not be an old businessman with many years of experiences. But I know good businessmen don't fancy such expensive 'bribes' and 'entertainment'.