Chase the Reputation Harder Than the Money.

Take the short money - overcharge once, cut a corner, burn a customer - and you win today and lose the decade. Reputation is the compounding asset of the middleman, because your entire business is people choosing to trust you over the faceless alternative. Every clean deal adds to it. Every greedy one spends it.

Chase reputation and the money chases you. A name people trust pulls in deals you never had to hunt for, suppliers who want to work with you, customers who refer their friends. Protect your name like it's the only thing you own - because in this game, it is.