Ready or not...

You know how somethings come at you in life that you never saw coming?  I mean right upside the head it smacks you and there is nothing to prepare you for that moment.  You can't practice for it or rehearse and there are no do-overs.  You are either ready to deal with the situation or not.

A few years back, I had that experience when I was in a bank robbery.  Laying face down with a Glock to the back of my head, I can still remember the feeling that in mere moments, life for me would end.  I remember the young lady laying across from me was crying that she would not see her daughter again.  

I have often reflected back on that scenario and thought how I could have been better prepared and have come to the conclusion that I could not.  I am what I am and the best I can do is get ready for the next cataclysmic event, whatever that may be.

Such was the thoughts going through my mind when a young-ish guy came into the library.  Guy had that I-just-got-punched-in-the-gut sort of look and tells me that his fledgling company had just been stolen from him.  

Seems he and a buddy of his launched a small tech start up a couple years back.  With a bevy of investors, guy and buddy worked tirelessly to make the company successful.  

While the company should have been turning a profit, it wasn't and, in fact, it was floundering.  After a while, guy found that college buddy had been funneling company secrets to a competitor.  

Before guy knew what was happening, buddy quits and starts working with competitor.  Shortly thereafter, competitor and buddy come out with a product exactly like guy and guy's business died an ignominious death.

Can you blame guy for feeling all out of sorts?  His buddy steals his ideas and jumps ship only to stab him in the back and cause his baby to fail?  

How can anyone possible plan for that kind of personal sabotage?  Guy sure wasn't, but walking into my library was probably the best thing he'd done all day because in less time than it took to write this blog, I suggested guy take a look at:

• California Torts (Lexis;  Vol. 3, Chp. 40, Fraud and Deceit and Other Business Torts, §§ 40.110—40.117)
• California Civil Jury Instructions (CACI) Series 2200 - Economic Interference
• Witkin, Summary of California Law, 10th ed. (TR; Vol. 5, Torts, §§ 741, 742, 759)
• California Forms of Pleading and Practice (Lexis; Vol. 12, Chp. 122, Interference)

and guy, calmer now, went off to plot a course to success (and the demise of his buddy).

Yep, sometimes things come at you sideways and you never see them coming.  Good thing there are people like your local county law Librarian who can help you make sense of it all when you find yourself laying in a heap in a gutter somewhere.