Dear Feargal Sharky,

Just a quick note to thank you for something....
(Sorry, it's taken me over a year to realise this... I should have thanked you earlier.)

Sometimes,
someone teaches me something
invaluable about life & myself….
by trying to force me to become something I'm intrinsically not.

You did that for me… so: thank you.

Unlike your cohorts, I'm not a reptile-brained shark. I never was & never will be.
It's not in my wiring.  You can't make me into one !

As for negotiating the price  - as subsequent events showed us (both), you were wrong about me on that count, weren't you ?  ( I'd already earned what I was expecting from them, above board, fair & square. I didn't need to be indulging you any special favours, to get what was already owed to me.....In a fair world, that is.)

What you didn't learn ....is probably just as interesting as what I learnt:

Do you realise your behaviour reinforced a tone for that organisation, which indulges sharky behaviour…. ? They'd been doing it for years before you arrived ....so you can't take all the credit for that ....but you gave them senior endorsement to really ramp it up. As a leader, you set the example... but, hey, if they are happy with operating like that.. who am I to judge ?

In the end, I am happy. What I learnt about myself is way more valuable to me than what they didn't pay me.

The MOST important lesson though, from all of this .....is that I really appreciate true good guys, when I come across them... and what a divine pleasure it is when I do.

Anyway....So long .....& thanks for the all shark lessons !