Whenever I needed services or contracts, the most natural thing to do was to contact all my kakis and asked them for their best recommendations.
How wrong! These kakis to their best of intention always recommend me their best contacts and services (usually ex-countrymen). But, the rates were deadly bad.
Now I understand why this is so: These contacts are usually already quite successful in their fields. So any recommendations that come through the grape-vines are just additional business to them. It is just icing on their cake. it is not bread-and-butter survival issue for them. Since I am not their friend or anything close, they always try their luck by quoting higher than market. If successful, nice hit, otherwise, tough love. No hit sustained. I am no friend to them anyway. They simply refused to be a hard-working cow.
After understanding this, I have since moved away from contact recommendations. The internet is now my best friend. Advertisements in the internet are usually almost free. Due to this, the goods/services are normally marked lowest possible. Hence, in the internet, I can find the best deals. If I don't like it, I moved on. Else, I will just take the listed services/goods for trying, after all it is always almost competitively priced. There is no further need in getting frustrated doing friendship tests.
That being said, I also now prefer to deal with the whites. They are extremely fair. One recent case, I pressed the panic button when I realized I have to pay a certain fee, without my knowledge, prior to engagement. But, the white said since I was not informed of the fee before hand, the fee was waived. it was that simple. This was not the only case, I have several previous experiences too. It was not because my fees were waived and hence, I found angmo tio kee. It was their attitude towards trying to be fair at all costs impressed me. They had motivated me to be as fair as possible myself.
Indeed, this is a good thing. I have also learned to pay what's due to Caesar.
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