I heard this story once, 6000 hours   I once put over 6000 hours (inside about 13 months)and a full years income into a business with a partner. Then one day I can into work and found that my partner and her gang of goons had ripped off everything from the business overnight. That was at the beginning of November and all the work was to get ready for the christmas rush, we were selling retail.   Dang, a whole year of me saying "Why don't we offer and sell a product or service to the public for profit, like a business is supposed to", nope..all there was was drama, drama, drama all the time.   Come to find out, it seems she took a bribe from a competitor, told every lie she could get away with, to everyone she knew to cause cause trouble for the partner and then left the state!   Wow, I thought I had heard it all. Now to top it off, I heard yesterday that her and her partner in crime have some nice fella over a barrel or they are just conning him too. It seems he gets some kinda check in the mail and they keep tricking him into ending up in jail so someone else can cash that check. wow how low can you go.   Here is the law I didn't know about or things would have turned out much differently. IC 35-41-3 Chapter 3. Defenses Relating to Culpability (or Indianas Castle Law) relates to protecting ourselves against thugs and creeps that would seek to make our lives empty of anything valuable we have, have built or that we own. If you need to protect yourself from someone(s) taking something you own, built or have the legal right to here is the Indiana Version click here , here is a list of other states that have similar protections for us click here  . This could easily be her! This is what I felt like under the control of her and her advisors. THIS is what it feels like now, working 6am - midnight 7 days a week trying to fulfil all of the contractural and financial obligations that were left behind. This is where I will be in a few months, God willing, after it all is said and done.  Moral of the story? Be very careful who you become partners with! Hangin In Through the Storm!