Chapter 54

Wrestling with banks and financial institutions is a lot like wrestling with alligators. Or at least what I imagine wrestling with alligators would be like, since I have never wrestled an alligator, but I have watched others do it. The alligator has all the advantages in the fight. All the teeth, all the strength, all the claws, all the terrain, all the power.

I have been wrestling with banks for the last two months to get a loan to buy a house. We are nearing the end of the contract limits, and just this morning, they are once again asking me the most minuscule questions about the most unimportant financial nuances on the most minor parts of my entire financial picture . . . one would think that they did not want to loan me the money! But the bank, like the alligator, has all the advantages, all the teeth, all the strength, all the claws, all the terrain, all the power. They can just keep asking for paperwork right up until the contract expires, and then force me to go through the whole damn process again!

The only power I have here, or in an alligator wrestling match, is the choice about whether I want to wrestle or not. When you find yourself in an unequal power situation, you may want to guard this choice ferociously.