You might not know this about me, but I'm a bit (okay a lot) of an astrology junkie. I think astrology is a really interesting form of recordkeeping and pattern recognition and I enjoy studying it and doing amateur readings for my friends on the regular.
Anyway, I say all that to say that today is the beginning of Scorpio season and I'm so thrilled about it because we're finally out of the sh*tstorm that is Libra niceness.
This is a personal boon for me because I have a lot of Libra placements in my chart, which means I sometimes fall into the trap of trying to be too nice and too palatable when in reality, I'm not really a nice person and my general vibe is far from palatable.
So if you'll allow it, I'd like to shrug off the burden of niceness that I sometimes insist on carrying against my better judgment and make the case for why you too, should stop being so damn nice.
And before you ask, yes, this email is about the contracts you're signing in your business.
Okay, let's get started.
*cracks knuckles and neck*
The other thing to know about me is that I like to study history for the same reason I like to study astrology: it helps me develop and fine tune my skill of pattern recognition.
As some of you know, I study the history of business law to understand how we wound up in our current mess where very few people understand business law and/or have access to the help they need to navigate and understand it.
In my recent studies, I've been reading about the development of modern business law during The Crusades. If you're unfamiliar with this period, it spanned the years 1025 to 1291 and it's when the Catholic church essentially launched a Holy War against Muslims and Jewish people and sought to gain control of various Holy Lands in the Meditteranean and Middle East.
What no one ever talks about in relation to this time period is: (1) the motivation behind The Crusades; and (2) the development of modern day business law that happened as a result of The Crusades.
The prevailing story of course is that the motivation for these wars was religious in nature, but actually it had more to do with trade and the need for access to Eastern goods that were increasingly in demand in the West. That and the church needed to give private knights (early mercenaries) something to do other than impose tariffs on travelling merchants, as that was impeding the church's profit from trade.
So the Church came up with The Crusades to take back the Holy Lands or whatever and they sent all the private knights to the frontlines to go fight.
But another thing happened too.
They needed to find a way to finance these wars and so they did this thing where the church and merchants and feudal lords pooled their money to fund crusades to the East to sack lands and return with goods.
And that's when lawyers were invented.
No but seriously. This is when lawyers as we know them today came onto the scene. Because when a bunch of rich people come together to fund an uncertain business venture, they all want to make sure they get their share of the profits if the venture works out.
And that means you need more complicated contracts to spell out the terms and what happens in different scenarios. To do that, you couldn't just be a regular degular person writing a plain language contract anymore. You needed to be a legal technician.
So lawyers exploded onto the scene and from the get go, they labored on behalf of the folks with the capital.
And guess what?
When the folks with less money wanted to get in on these ventures and enter into contracts with folks who had a ton of money, the lawyers were the ones who made sure that the folks with less money waived key rights in those contracts.
Like if the value of the land they were giving the rich person to get in on the deal happened to be a lot more than what was in the contract, then the poor person was deemed to have "gifted" the difference in value of the land to the rich person.
These contracts also routinely required the less rich person to waive certain procedural rights that would otherwise help them win a potential lawsuit in court.
And my personal favorite, all the contracts were written in Latin instead of the actual language that everyone who was a party to the contract spoke.
So let me ask you something:
Is it just me, or does this sh*t sound familiar?
Ever since less rich people, aka working class people, have tried to get in on the business of making money for themselves, they've been met with contracting terms that are designed to screw them over.
And this is what I am hoping you will take from this fun history lesson: contracting terms that protect the rich in business law are the norm. They always have been.
That means if you're entering into a contract with a large company, you can bet that it has terms in it that are designed to get you to waive your rights. This includes those service contracts you're signing with clients who are large companies.
But here's the difference between you and that random tiny landowner from 1100: you have access to a lot more resources and power today than they did then.
First, there are more lawyers like yours truly on your side working to even out the playing field.
Second, you're in a materially different situation than those poor blokes from 1100. You're not trying to get in on a deal; you are the deal.
You're being hired for your expertise, which means that company wants to work with you and hire you to perform a specific service that they need.
And I need you to understand that means you have a lot more leverage than you think. That means you can demand things like a percentage of your fee paid upfront.
That means you can negotiate the termination terms in that contract so your client has to give you adequate notice.
That means you can change that ownership clause to say that ownership of your work doesn't transfer until you're paid in full.
Because when it comes to corporations, we don't need to be nice. We can be cordial and repsectful to the people, but ultimately, that contract is between you and a fictional, nonliving entity.
And now that Libra season is over, I think we can all agree to let go of the false belief that there's nothing to be done about those oppressive contract terms.
Because the truth is that there's actually a lot to be done. There's a lot you can do to make those contract terms fairer to you, which creates conditions for you to have a better working relationship with your client(s).
And my job is to teach you what those things are.
My job is to get you to capable so you can stand your legal ground and negotiate better contracting terms for your business.
My job is to level the negotiation playing field between you and your client.
Because you deserve more than just money. You also deserve better contracts. And I'm here to help you get both.
So whenever you're ready to get even, I'll be here.
See you soon on these legalese streets,
Brionna
