In the first year of my career, I met and father and daughter that wanted to buy a home together and asked me to assist them. On their accepted offer, it turns out we added a bit too much into the price for finance charges.
Their Loan Officer really laid into me about it and even accused me of trying to take advantage of them (they, like her, were Croatian immigrants and she said this is why I was intentionally harming them). I wasn’t sure how I had made the mistake, but called the buyers – my clients – right away to discuss it.
Spoiler alert: as it turns out, it wasn’t my mistake. The Loan Officer’s assistant had given me the wrong figures and the Loan Officer had been telling a lot of people (both inside and outside of this country) that it was my fault and I wouldn’t make it right.
They fired her and stayed with me. And it wasn’t because of the mistake, but because of how it was handled. In the 20+ years since, I’ve seen it over and over: a person takes ownership of their mistake and is forgiven. Another tries to put the blame on someone else and is held additionally responsible for the poor behavior.
See the video for the full story.