James Siminoff

Know your Contracts

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A CEO/Founder/Entrepreneur should know and memorize key contracts.  I HATE reading contracts but force myself to understand the important ones.

A few weeks ago was one of those times where contract knowledge came in handy (for clarity this had nothing to do with PhoneTag/SimulScribe).

I was in a meeting and a “situation” came up that would not have been great for me.  However because this particular contract I have committed to memory,  I was able state my rights if “X” happened and what I would do.  There was a definite look of shock as the other party (who originally wrote the contract) had forgotten that the option existed and immediately agreed that “X” would not come up again.

The negative of lawyers handling your contracts is that most of the time you get a go/no-go from the them to sign but you never truly understand the nuances of the individual clauses.  If I had just let my lawyers handle the above, I would have never known my full rights and therefore would not of been armed with the knowledge when it was needed.

So until I can have a full time lawyer join me everywhere (I hope this is soon) I will continue to take it as my responsibility to memorize key contracts.  It has saved my ass more then once.