No, it's completely common for friendships to break down over business.
Very few friendships are robust enough to survive one party costing the other $20,000.
I have other friendships that have been tested for similar amounts that have survived. But, it leaves a mark.
I had an ex-employee who worked for me under starvation wages in a startup long ago. He was upset about that and some tax implications, and brought it up with me. I gave him a smallish lump sum and enabled him to put a down payment on a house. I need to ask him about that, it was really brave to ask me to clean something up, and I never did that with the friend from the OP. I wonder if it would have gone differently.
I'm seeing a lot of people in my circle struggling right now. I bet 2024 is going to be a bad year for friendships.
Is it possible to buy a real friendship for $20k? Is a friendship of many years worth more to you than $20k - would you stop being friends if someone else offered you that much to do so?
This isn't a paltry sum of money, it is a paltry sum to end a friendship over.
That probably depends on how critical that $20k is to you. If it's your only $20k, then yeah it'd be much more impactful than if it's just one of many.
But even when the loss causes little financial hardship, it could put a strain on a relationship.
Imagine you invest $20k in my business and I buy a $5k industrial juicing machine for the office so my staff can have freshly squeezed orange juice. I tell you that employees expect free luxury food these days and it'll make hiring much easier. You have your doubts.
If the business does well and we both make a big profit - we're both happy. You still think the juicer was a bit extravagant - but it all worked out in the end, and maybe I was right that it helped with recruitment.
But if the business fails - you might resent the fact I wasted $5k of your money on a juicer.
hence no money can be enough to compensate for a friendship
