Seven years ago, a wise and successful businessman said to me, "Matt, the only thing in the way of you becoming wildly successful is the fact that you are too nice."

Back then I thought, well, I'll just be the first nice guy to become wildly successful then.

Many years have passed since that conversation, and I have come to a new conclusion. And since the formula to success and its execution demands a multi-faceted approach, selling a great product or providing a great service is really only step 1.

Nice guys can sell a great product. Nice guys can provide great service. What nice guys cannot do is clear the accounts receivables. A nice guy going after the A/R is like taking a knife to a gun fight (big points if you can name that movie).

It takes a complete and total different type of person to get the money in. Some may call it being persistent. Others may call it being aggressive. But if we all just called it like it is, it's really just being a jack-ass. For some odd reason, most businesses don't like paying nice people on time. Why pay the nice guys when you have spit-braying male donkeys breathing down your neck everyday? That's reality. Perhaps this was the foresight that my wise counsel from years ago had seen when I was still green.

I'm in the world but not of the world, but I still have to deal with the world. Which means I have to keep a donkey named Jack in the organization. He's not there to greet people, and you may never even see him; but he's there. And when called, he'll come to the table, well rested and ready to roar. It's like an unfortunate reality. Take a look at any growing business and you'll be sure to find some sort of A/R escalation procedure that looks like this: notifications > letters > late fees > certified letters > collection agencies > law suites. It's the norm.

In business, sometimes you just have to fight fire with fire, and leave the water hose at home.