Hey Gruesom, I'm upvoting you because you've got some good points in your comment and I've seen quite a few comments from you I really like. But...
"I think your only true protection against getting burned again is to deeply face what it is in yourself that created those painful situations in the first place."
That's... not really true. The rest of your advice is sound and good, but there are bad people in the world that do bad things. There's also normal people, and between normal people, there's friction. Almost everyone I know who is successful in business has been burned a couple times, and you just need to learn from it. Certainly the original poster did some things wrong via contracts, relationships, etc, but it's also quite possible that he was just dealing with some rat bastards. There's a lot of them in the world, and unfortunately, you usually start by working with them. Established people typically only work with people with a great track record, so when you don't have one, you're usually working with someone else who doesn't have one. So you've got a 1 in whatever chance that a random person is a donkey chance that you're working with a donkey.
it's also quite possible that he was just dealing with some rat bastards
Certainly, and I hope I didn't imply otherwise. But then a person in that situation needs to better discern who's a rat bastard. It still comes down to taking responsibility for what you need to learn. It sounds like we agree on that.
I think maybe what you're objecting to is a sense that I was blaming the victim. I admit there's a fine line between saying "it was the victim's fault" and saying "if the victim wishes to cease being a victim he must take responsibility for what he himself did". Possibly it's too fine a line to come across well in a brief post. It can be hard to tell whether someone is writing from a caring state or a judgmental one (whereas in person, you'd pick that up easily from nonverbal cues).
Yeah, I think both of you are right. Its part that there are scammers out there who use gambits and deception, and there's also due dillgence by yourself that must be done.
I need to mention that as far as a track record goes, a lot of the people that have wronged me in the past are extremely wealthy now or quickly getting there. Many have networks of friends that they don't scam, and that will readily vouch for them. The worst is if they do become extremely successful, and decide to be "serial entrepreneurs", the path they knew to previous success was the only path they know, and thus are more than ready to run gambits again. That's all they know. Therefore, a track record or "references" doesn't mean much.
"I think your only true protection against getting burned again is to deeply face what it is in yourself that created those painful situations in the first place."
That's... not really true. The rest of your advice is sound and good, but there are bad people in the world that do bad things. There's also normal people, and between normal people, there's friction. Almost everyone I know who is successful in business has been burned a couple times, and you just need to learn from it. Certainly the original poster did some things wrong via contracts, relationships, etc, but it's also quite possible that he was just dealing with some rat bastards. There's a lot of them in the world, and unfortunately, you usually start by working with them. Established people typically only work with people with a great track record, so when you don't have one, you're usually working with someone else who doesn't have one. So you've got a 1 in whatever chance that a random person is a donkey chance that you're working with a donkey.