Edit: Mods, I saw RK just bumped The Profit thread, didn't remember that there was one. I'll repost this there and you can go head and nuke this.
Two caveats. First, I don't want to seem creepy or invasive with this post, but it was like a train wreck, where once I started looking, I couldn't look away. I hope it proves educational anyway, if it seems like too much snooping, sorry. Everything I've mentioned here was found on a single 1st page Google search with everything in public access. Names/locations omitted, but if it needs to be deleted, that's fine.
Second, I'm not sure if this should go where the Shark Tank master thread went, or in the sidewalk section.
Anyway, The Profit is one of two TV shows we watch anymore. It's not as good as Shark Tank, and has a more cheesy reality-TV feel, but it's still good for some solid business insights. Pizza and The Profit is one of my wife and my weekly rituals.
Anyway, this week's show was a disaster, as the people involved ultimately concealed their true financial situation, leading to the deal collapsing. They claimed to have gotten millions in insurance payouts when two mysterious fires broke out at their building and warehouse. They claimed to have revenue that was about 4 times expenses. But they could not pay the bills.
As Marcus dug deeper, he finds out that the wife drives a 5-Series, and the dad has a large boat (that was also wrecked, leading to a huge insurance payout), and that they're re-modeling their house while their business is tanking and they're hitting up the workers to buy inventory. You can see all that on the show.
What blew my mind was after the show, my wife was googling the business to see how things turned out for them after the show and if Marcus got his money back, and along with the company website and (mostly negative) YELP reviews, up pops the then public (but now private) Facebook profile of the daughter who works at the business. The profile included the most sidewalkian tale of woe ever. That all the drama was fake, that the financials weren't accurate on the show, that Marcus was trying to steal their building, that the fires were totally explainable because they had a former employee who stole from them (causing some of the debt) who wanted to kill them but the police refused to investigate, that the family had had 3-4 deaths that were close that year and depressed everyone, that the dad had made bad investments, man, I can't even begin to scratch the surface of the litany of nonsense that was in that rant. Anyway, as my wife calls me over and as we're reading this, we look at the girl's profile picture. The profile picture was at Club XS in Vegas. And others in Miami clubs. And LA. And Italy. And Southern France. And TONS in NYC at apartments that must have cost north of $10M. Bottle service everywhere. Every one, a new dress, every picture from a different party. This girl was beautiful and young, and she was basically faking her way through the NYC millionaire socialite life. Truckloads of designer clothes, tanker ships of alcohol, and in the background... utter financial ruin. Phones shut off. Banks nailing signs to the door.
Marcus ripped this girl's mom a new one for driving a 5 series while the workers went unpaid, but unbeknownst to him this girl (who showed up to the business in a very modest car) also had, at various points, a CLK 63 AMG Black Series and an Audi R8 Spyder. Her parent's house was palatial, and featured a beautiful raised, heated stone hot tub in the back where she seemed to have a lot of parties, and on and on. Their parents had boats and cars and this giant house, and were probably helping this girl live her lifestyle in NYC. Meanwhile, their business, that their dad built, is in foreclosure, and they can't pay their employees. Her "great" job she left was as at a department store. I know lots of people who work at department stores who can afford R8 Spyders, don't you? All this, we found after looking for a few minutes, then closed the browser. It's all deleted/private now, probably because other show-watchers looked up the company and found this insanity too.
These things define the sidewalk: Pretending to be successful when you are not, blaming absolutely anyone and everyone else when your pretensions are seen through, and refusing to alter your pattern of behavior until destitution takes everything you have and no one is left to listen to the cries of "woe is me!"
It was powerful to see it all laid bare like this in a real world example.
Two caveats. First, I don't want to seem creepy or invasive with this post, but it was like a train wreck, where once I started looking, I couldn't look away. I hope it proves educational anyway, if it seems like too much snooping, sorry. Everything I've mentioned here was found on a single 1st page Google search with everything in public access. Names/locations omitted, but if it needs to be deleted, that's fine.
Second, I'm not sure if this should go where the Shark Tank master thread went, or in the sidewalk section.
Anyway, The Profit is one of two TV shows we watch anymore. It's not as good as Shark Tank, and has a more cheesy reality-TV feel, but it's still good for some solid business insights. Pizza and The Profit is one of my wife and my weekly rituals.
Anyway, this week's show was a disaster, as the people involved ultimately concealed their true financial situation, leading to the deal collapsing. They claimed to have gotten millions in insurance payouts when two mysterious fires broke out at their building and warehouse. They claimed to have revenue that was about 4 times expenses. But they could not pay the bills.
As Marcus dug deeper, he finds out that the wife drives a 5-Series, and the dad has a large boat (that was also wrecked, leading to a huge insurance payout), and that they're re-modeling their house while their business is tanking and they're hitting up the workers to buy inventory. You can see all that on the show.
What blew my mind was after the show, my wife was googling the business to see how things turned out for them after the show and if Marcus got his money back, and along with the company website and (mostly negative) YELP reviews, up pops the then public (but now private) Facebook profile of the daughter who works at the business. The profile included the most sidewalkian tale of woe ever. That all the drama was fake, that the financials weren't accurate on the show, that Marcus was trying to steal their building, that the fires were totally explainable because they had a former employee who stole from them (causing some of the debt) who wanted to kill them but the police refused to investigate, that the family had had 3-4 deaths that were close that year and depressed everyone, that the dad had made bad investments, man, I can't even begin to scratch the surface of the litany of nonsense that was in that rant. Anyway, as my wife calls me over and as we're reading this, we look at the girl's profile picture. The profile picture was at Club XS in Vegas. And others in Miami clubs. And LA. And Italy. And Southern France. And TONS in NYC at apartments that must have cost north of $10M. Bottle service everywhere. Every one, a new dress, every picture from a different party. This girl was beautiful and young, and she was basically faking her way through the NYC millionaire socialite life. Truckloads of designer clothes, tanker ships of alcohol, and in the background... utter financial ruin. Phones shut off. Banks nailing signs to the door.
Marcus ripped this girl's mom a new one for driving a 5 series while the workers went unpaid, but unbeknownst to him this girl (who showed up to the business in a very modest car) also had, at various points, a CLK 63 AMG Black Series and an Audi R8 Spyder. Her parent's house was palatial, and featured a beautiful raised, heated stone hot tub in the back where she seemed to have a lot of parties, and on and on. Their parents had boats and cars and this giant house, and were probably helping this girl live her lifestyle in NYC. Meanwhile, their business, that their dad built, is in foreclosure, and they can't pay their employees. Her "great" job she left was as at a department store. I know lots of people who work at department stores who can afford R8 Spyders, don't you? All this, we found after looking for a few minutes, then closed the browser. It's all deleted/private now, probably because other show-watchers looked up the company and found this insanity too.
These things define the sidewalk: Pretending to be successful when you are not, blaming absolutely anyone and everyone else when your pretensions are seen through, and refusing to alter your pattern of behavior until destitution takes everything you have and no one is left to listen to the cries of "woe is me!"
It was powerful to see it all laid bare like this in a real world example.
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