People say you have to be cutthroat in business but I disagree. I think you only need to be cutthroat if you mostly deal with other people who are also like that. While the sharks are out tearing pieces off each other, I've been able to make a decent living interacting with mostly nice folks through mutual understanding and fair dealing. I might just have been stupendously lucky, but I'm not sure - I think fair dealing attracts fair dealers, and the opposite is also true.