Disagreeing with the owner is the easy part. The hard part comes later

Disagreeing with the owner is the easy part. The hard part comes later.

Early 2016. He came back from a meeting at a luxury mall in love with a car service shop project I did not want to do. I knew the system: he fell in love with an idea, ordered it executed, and the bill landed on me. I said I will not do it, and do not even go to that meeting. An owner is an owner. He came back the way I feared, and I, in protest, said that if he wanted that dream so much, he could make it happen on his own. Then he used my curiosity against me: I accept, as long as you prove it will not work.

Six months with the union, city hall, architect, engineer and legal together, plus neuroscience and mall behavior. The store opened billing like a street unit, with half the fixed cost. The pandemic stopped the expansion at three stores, and the malls were already calling me an anchor.

I did not prove it would not work. I proved it would, and the proof stayed under my name.

Prove it will not work is the most elegant move an owner has to transfer risk.

If it goes wrong, the blame already has a name. If it goes right, the idea still belongs to whoever only had the idea. And the executive learns to disagree less next time.

From a firm no to a passionate yes. To this day I do not know whether I won that argument or lost it in a more expensive way.