How To Handle Tricksters From Your Circles

A disciplined stickler for time wondered why his friend often set the meeting times and failed to keep them. This went on for years and eventually, he accepted that his friend was poor at timekeeping.

But one day, he forgot something at home that was needed for the meeting. He drove back only to find his friend's vehicle parked at his carport. He tiptoed up the stairs and discovered that his good friend was betraying him together with his spouse.

It then quickly dawned on him that the lateness to the meetings was the result of quick visits to his house when he was away attending meetings. He regretted ever introducing Jackie to Joseph as a good friend. The good friend was a trickster.

Tricksters are the sweetest people to hang around at face value. They are not go-getters but they often get what they want through deceit. These people will often do things in a manner that aligns with your long-term goals but with the aid of your blindspots shielding them from getting caught.

The key to a successful betrayal is access. Judas Iscariot kissed Jesus to mark him out for those hunting him down, and they got him. Access to useful information or physical presence is a condition for a successful betrayal. The trickster around you needs to have a chance to ambush you and gain that advantage through knowing you enough to execute their mission.

A trickster is defined as a person who cheats or deceives people. When s/he gains, someone else loses out. Many people in business today have no time for the straight and narrow paths. Competition is so intense that staying true to one's principles comes at a price. The attitude has been wrongly termed as 'streetsmart'. Astuteness has been replaced by trickery. It has become so frequently practised that it is accepted as a norm, but this leads us astray, just as it is when the traffic police officers signal cars to proceed past the red lights as those urged to go by the greenlight get stopped.

So, much as we are taught to think right toward people until they give us a reason to doubt them, better safe than sorry. Someone who pushes for your friendship and demonstrates a kind of keenness that gets them to learn much about you within a fairly short time must be approached with caution.

People don't learn about you as a pastime but to derive a benefit from or off you.

When the interest wanes, they have either finished their research or are giving you time as they space out their mission. So, it is important to review your conversations as a risk management measure. It does not hurt to learn more about those snooping around for information about you.

You may not be the target but the source of information needed to trick some other people. If you are known to have many contacts, people will approach you to get information about their targets. Tricksters are awash with conduits.

The trickster is specialised around something. It could be money or any other thing of value. They search for your weaknesses as these are the means to ensuring that they have ample time to execute their intentions. So whenever someone presses your weakness buttons, have the consciousness to realise that you are now going outside the wire.

And there are ways of dealing with them. Our friend who we read of earlier had the choice of confronting both friend and spouse, but he opted to drive back to the meeting place.

When his friend arrived, he patiently waited for his apologies for turning up late and sat quietly to the end of the meeting without letting out any clues.

He then invited him to his house claiming that he had something important he needed to show him. The man showed up as invited and as they sat to have tea, he asked his spouse to join them at the table.

Then he said: "you two owe me an explanation, I know that you and Joseph have been doing things behind my back". And when the denials came, he asked them what Joseph's car was doing in the carport the earlier when the meeting time was minutes away. When no answers were forthcoming, he walked away as he quipped: "let me give you some privacy".

Please note that he was calm and collected when he handled the situation. And that's how they get handled. Take them to the crime scene and make them know that you know. Their guilt does the rest for you.

The other day, the mechanic asked for twice the amount needed to purchase some car parts. I sent him the requested amount and patiently waited for him to finish the job.

We then did a test drive and found ourselves in the industrial area. I asked him to accompany me to buy something I needed to be fixed on the car. But on arriving at the shop, I asked how much the parts fitted in my car cost. I was given the cost, item by item, as the mechanic listened on. I never confronted him but just paid him the amount agreed to for doing the job, less the amount he had gifted himself. He never uttered a word. I asked him if he was going back with me but he indicated that he had some business to do. So, I left him there and proceeded on with other things.

Isn't that so simple?