“You can still decide to compromise,” she explained.

“But you should compromise knowing what you’re giving up, not because someone shamed you into silence.”

That weekend Daniel called to say he was considering selling one of the business’s two company vehicles.

He wanted me to feel responsible for that possibility.

I asked whether the second vehicle was essential for operations.

He paused, then admitted it was primarily used by him.

I suggested that reducing unnecessary expenses was precisely the kind of decision business owners sometimes have to make.