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Comment by j2d2j2d2 | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand why financial relationship has to be perceived as a negative thing. A business relationship can be excellent, just like a typical friendship.

Expectations are different, sure. There are a lot of good things that can come from it in spite of that.

It's the people involved that make it crap or awesome.

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I think John Rockefeller said it best: "I'd rather turn my business associates my friends than my friends into business associates."

Not to be glib, but did Rockefeller have many friends? I'd bet he didn't say this.

Real quote: "A friendship founded on business is a good deal better than a business founded on friendship."

src: http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/authors/john-rockefe...

Doubtful. The internet is chock full of these cuckoo quote sites. If Google doesn't yield a primary source, it's almost certainly fake. This is one area where absence of evidence really is evidence of absence.

Edit: not a criticism of the quote itself. These things wouldn't get misattributed if they weren't worth repeating. But they wouldn't get repeated if they weren't misattributed, either; it's a kind of cultural appeal to authority.

The quote is from Rockefeller quoting his business partner Flagler. For a primary source, see "Random reminiscences of men and events" by JD Rockefeller, 1913.

Google Books is great for verifying this sort of quote: http://books.google.com/books?id=IHnZAAAAMAAJ&dq=A%20fri...

Good catch!

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