"You cant polish a turd"

I have a friend that used to say this to me all the time. I would come into work with a hopefull story about somebody who was turning their shit around or doing something great and he'd wait for me to finish and hit me with that big wet fish of a comment. In the end he was usually right, said person would fall on their face or return to mediocrity.

I have a side business I've been running for 2 years with a guy. He's fun to hang out with and a family man, but he's a financial wreck. I agreed to set-up and maintain the web portion of the business for free in exchange for half ownership. He would handle corporate sales, bookeeping, paying bills and phone calls. We also used his contacts to get a competitive advantage on product. It was alot of work but I was willing to take it on. Because of my skillset the business got rolling on about $400 total!

2004, it paid for itself, but no more.
2005 is coming around and through DAILY work on my part is starting to make money. REAL money is a year away, but it's building consistantly. I can chart and see the progress...it's real, I've increased revenue, and cut expenses.

My partner lives in California, and is out of throttling range. He's a classic sales guy and can talk to anybody. He knows how to use catch phrases for any industry, and how to be your buddy. I figured out he's a bullshitter early on, but I have a soft spot for people who are struggling. Arent we all struggling? He's a family guy and I figured my efforts can help both of us. I'm not greedy, I want all of us to win.

He's a classic dreamer too. Lots of ideas, and he oversimplifies them, and is sure that this will be the one, this will be like "Printing Money" Well, I know how to print money, and it's easier to just earn it.

I find out yesterday that he's been taking money out the last 2 months to pay for "expenses". It's just acouple of hundred dollars, but in the end it's the principle of the whole thing. His job isnt going well and he's in financial straits. I know he's using the money to cover costs with his family. Morality is the first thing to go when you're hungry, and I'd do whatever I had to do to feed my family. I'm just pissed off, because it's like dealing with an addict.

We purposely havent taken a penny out of the business so that it had a chance to grow. This is really upsetting because it had a chance, and now I want to scrap the whole thing and possibly relaunch it myself. It would take me another year to get it where it is today, but I know everything would be done correctly. It's really difficult to put energy into it now.

I need another can of polish, I cant seem to get this turd to shine.....