There is something a buddy of mine often says, and I think most people don’t give it enough thought. The idea of just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.
If we paid attention to this concept, I think in general people would be happier with each other and get along better. This is going to be a bit of an elitist example but I think it illustrates it well.
I was helping a family member with the sale/lease of a piece of property. Its a nice piece of property, but if combined with neighboring property, it would command a much bigger price and be a far better property. The family members property is the larger and more significant property, while it would get a boost from the joining with the neighboring property, the neighboring property would get an even bigger boost.
The owner of the neighboring property evidently thought we were morons, who can’t put two and two together. He had a several realtors come around asking for the listing, playing dumb, but a simple Google search, revealed that they had significant dealings with the guy. Needless to say we didn’t list with those guys. You can play dumb, but should you have? Was it beneficial to those parties, nope.
That plan didn’t work, we end up listing with someone else. So what is this guys next strategy, send lowball offers through some newly formed shell companies, because the market is soft etc. Again just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should.
I was tempted to send an insulting counter offer to him, as I know we had the better hand, but I stopped because yeah I could do that, but I said I shouldn’t do that. Because what would I gain by being that guy.
If he had approached us, straight up, and talked with us, and negotiating in good faith, he would probably own the property now. Instead, he focused on what he can do, and will now have to wait another 20 years for the property to come available again, as we leased it to someone who thought more about what I should do, like make an offer that appeals to both parties of the negotiation.
This is a long elaborate way of saying:
I can yell at the person at the airport when things go wrong, but should I.
I can retaliate against the guy that cut me off, by zooming around and cutting him off, but should I.
The list goes on and on, stop and say, I can do this but is it what I should do in the moment, is it what I would want someone to do to me in that moment.