Paying Back Loans

The loan trick my Bank played on me, giving a new loan while promisng that it will merge it will the old one, ended in my having to pay back two loans at the same time. It is very heavy but sure it concentrates one's mind! I had to focus in completing standing projects and most importantly, on getting paid. Getting paid is an art, comparable to getting laid. The Client desires/needs one thing: the final and definitive signature of the regulator. All the intermediate steps are of no real interest to the Client, they are obstacles toward the goal of getting thepermit signed and sleep without further worry. The engineer, J, is a disgusting instrument he is forced to deal with, a hateful bearer of the celestial regulator's demands.

Since I know how difficult, lenghty and uncertain is the final signature, I want to make sure that I get paid for my work and make the Client sign a contract detailing what I am supposed to do and when I am supposed to be paid. Most of the time I cannot even get an advance, because the Client wants the permit and will not pay a cent for a mere promise. He wants to have something going on to show for his money, so I agree that the first payment will be at the submittal of the documents. This is a mistake.

After much work I am ready to submit and want to my advance. The Client does not pay, he says that submittal is nothing, he hired me not for making submittals but for the permit. At this point I say no advance, no submittal. But I have invested much work in the process so I am in a weak position and accept a token payment. The regulator out-of-hand rejects the submittal he has not bothered to open, and demands to have a conference with me. He demands a presentation show, which gives him the opportunity to play the judge and humiliate me in front of his colleges. And so on for months.

After many months of hard work, the Client starts to feel that the golden permit is about to materialize, so his refusal to pay is hardening till the very end. I am so involved in the process that I cannot stop and work like hell for no money. The Client starts to reject my phone calls and he is never available.

At last, after months of work, the permit arrives. The Client hides it and lies saying that he did not receive it. He needs me like a hole in the head. Always pestering him. I have to send a letter retiring my documents and demand the Ministry to freeze his permit. But the Ministry bureaucrats will not help me, for them the process has been concluded correctly and dont want to start again. The payment is between you and the Client. Leave us alone. Desperate, I write a letter revealing that some calculating was wrong and I am asking to re-submit the documents and drawings. I send the letter to the Client, who realizes that his permit is about to evaporate and he has to start the Via Dolorosa from the start. He makes an effort to renegotiate the contract and avoind paying the whole sum. I am so fed up with it all and I am not really interested in declaring that I made a mistake, so I accept.

A public employee be, never a self-employed consultant.

If you insist in masochism, follow Ringer's Looking Out for Number One book. He calls the process I just described "commissiondectomy". The Client will do everything to avoid paying the middleman or the engineer. Ringer got paid (and made his millions) by establishing his superiority in knowledge and capability, by painfully documenting the work done, and by instilling the fear of Hell in the black hearts of his Clients.