I have had the displeasure of meeting the miserable bastard, several times, in the process of a bid for a technology project some years ago.
When we withdrew, as it was clear to me that this was going to be a looney tunes scramble through a hedgerow while being berated by a cast-iron lunatic, he made it very clear we had made the right decision. I had the grace to tell him we were withdrawing our interest face to face. He turned a shade of purple that cannot possibly be healthy, before storming from the room like an overgrown child.
Which brings me to the mystique - there is none. The man is an overgrown schoolboy and he acts like one. Call it eccentric, call it whimsical - I would call it stunted and inane. He has survived by dint of a property bubble - otherwise he would have run the business into the ground decades ago.
When we withdrew, as it was clear to me that this was going to be a looney tunes scramble through a hedgerow while being berated by a cast-iron lunatic, he made it very clear we had made the right decision. I had the grace to tell him we were withdrawing our interest face to face. He turned a shade of purple that cannot possibly be healthy, before storming from the room like an overgrown child.
That is a wonderful description; and while I like his beer and would probably enjoy drinking it in one of his pubs, I would cross a four-lane highway against the light to avoid having to deal with the man himself.
That said, you were not in a position to add a 500% 'wanker tax' to the price of the bid, to make it worth dealing with him?
I had learned previously that rather than suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, it is often a wiser move to let someone else, preferably your competition, bear forth against a sea of troubles.
Which is to say, some clients, no amount of money will make worthwhile. These are the people who will decide to claim insolvency when it comes time to pay the bill, who will produce the snag list that includes “god is dead”, who will call you dead drunk at 4am on a Sunday because they’ve forgotten their password, and their email address.
No. I’d sooner watch that sport from the sidelines.
All UK businesses these days are property investment funds with a lesser or greater amount of ornamental embellishment. And since it's illegal to build anything (at least if anyone cares to challenge your planning applications, as per the article), it will probably stay that way for a while.
When we withdrew, as it was clear to me that this was going to be a looney tunes scramble through a hedgerow while being berated by a cast-iron lunatic, he made it very clear we had made the right decision. I had the grace to tell him we were withdrawing our interest face to face. He turned a shade of purple that cannot possibly be healthy, before storming from the room like an overgrown child.
Which brings me to the mystique - there is none. The man is an overgrown schoolboy and he acts like one. Call it eccentric, call it whimsical - I would call it stunted and inane. He has survived by dint of a property bubble - otherwise he would have run the business into the ground decades ago.