You may have heard the expression

If he cheated with you, he will cheat on you.

I’ve lived this first-hand, and it was an “aha!” moment early in life. A lot of things about personalities and relationships clicked after thinking about that simple fact.

Since then, I’ve noticed the same thinking can be applied to business: potential clients, potential employees, potential employers, etc.

If someone has “had terrible vendors” in the past or “worked for horrific bosses” or “has had terrible luck keeping good employees” it’s certainly something to commiserate with them about, but then an opportunity to dig deeper and find out why.