[Fastguy]

I'm going to tell you all a little story. Once upon a time, back in the late 80's, there was a guy (no it isn't me, really) who graduated from college and opened a small business. He worked hard, really hard, putting in long hours and doing whatever it took to get the business off the ground. Nights, weekends, whatever, for years. The business struggled, but eventually started to do OK. Then an opportunity came along. A big developer, very well known with a lot of money and lots of projects going on, hired the guy to come in on a big development. The guy was thrilled (and even a bit flattered) and took the job. The guy worked out an agreement with a signed contract of $xx,xxx for the job over three months. This was a ton of money for the guy. The developer would pay a third each month. The guy bought materials for the job and got started. After month 1, his payroll ate up a ton of capital along with the materials. The developer stalled on payment but promised it was coming. Month 2, same thing, payroll and materials. Now in month 3, the materials suppliers were all looking for payment, payroll was wiping out the money coming in from other jobs. The job was complete. The developer decided not to pay, basically saying in a nutshell, " I have a ton of money, and excellent attorneys on retainer that will stall you until you are out of business because you are nobody". That is what he did. He had excellent attorneys, slimey, scumbag excellent attorneys that waged a war of attrition.
The guy's business started to fail, he had to start selling equipment, he was underwater, the deal had killed the company. Eventually, he had to close, losing the company.
He went to work for someone else and took on a second job to pay back his suppliers that had extended him credit even though he was out of that business and had left that field of work.
Years later, he applied for a management job at a big company and listed one of his suppliers from years earlier as a business reference.
The company invited him back for a a final interview and this is (paraphrased) what went down.

"We had a tough decision to make on who to hire, so we called references. We called ABC company and the owner told us about you. He said a lot of people owed them a ton of money when the market changed, big companies, small companies. You owed him a lot, but not nearly as much as the big companies. He said every week, no matter what, you came in and paid whatever you could, $50, $150, $75,$300, whatever you could spare, and did it for years, until you paid off your debt. No one else paid them back, not the small guys who were still in business, not the big corporations. Just this one guy.
That story carried more weight than any resume we recieved, you have the job."
That job was a stepping stone and the guy went on to become very successful.
Now he doesn't owe anybody anything and can can be proud of his word as his bond.