[eff around] conning job applicants & IP

I’m annoyed. A good friend and restaurant leader was sought out by a few companies to be their “COO”, “VP of Operations” person. Open to seeing what was out there, he informed his recruiter. And he got slammed (of course). He shared one interview he had. A restaurant CEO asked him to “prove his worth” by putting together an action plan for growth. He accommodated. It was labor-intensive, and revealed all of his secrets (you go all-in, right?). Later, he discovered they had NO intention of hiring him. And they were using him for free consulting. Here’s my download of all this: your character sucks ass. My friend is a generous person, and has no problem sharing his best stuff. It’s how he’s an effective content creator on social media. And it’s how he’s built the trust of billion-dollar foodservice companies that have hired him. They could’ve engaged with him honestly - and gotten his insights without being a piece of shit, conning good people, and burning bridges. The restaurant industry is a smaller world than they think. Good luck. Another thought that comes to mind is Seth Godin’s post, called The stolen address book . I used to ask, “If you stole Steven Spielberg’s address book, would it help you get a movie made?” The point was that even if you had the phone numbers and names, calling them up and saying you’d stolen them wasn’t worth very much. The data has no value without trust and connection. Now, twenty years later, all the address books have been stolen. Everyone has all the data. Identifying the right people (or spamming everyone) is easy and cheap. Which makes the point even more urgent than ever: Without trust and connection, access to data is worthless. Okay - therapy session done. Do right, y’all.