Sometimes revenge is a dish best served cold because it takes you twenty years to be able to give it to the right person at the right time.

But if you’re patient, karma usually finds a way to help you out.

OP was young, broke, and inexperienced when a business owner took advantage of her.

In my young 20’s I moved to a new city to try start my career and life.

Money was VERY tight but I was confident I would get things up and running.

In my job search I came across a promising opportunity at a small firm (The Firm).

Instead of offering me the job the owner (The Owner) said he would like me to come in for two days and work. If it was fit they would hire me and if not they would pay for the two days.

Money was so tight at the time that, I figured taking the bus to and from the job was a luxury I could not afford and walked an hour each way to get there.

Money was very tight!

I did good work both the days and worked very hard, but it was not a fit.

The Owner then tells me “I know we said we would pay you, but it just too complicated to set you up for just two days, so you will just have to be happy you got the experience with us.”

She was furious, but decided to be the bigger person…for now.

The way he acted really rubbed me the wrong way.

I was mad as I really needed the money, but as I was trying to find a job and I figured it was not in my best interest to make waves as word may get around I was ‘difficult’.

I did however decide that some day, some way I would get my revenge on the owner.

I did find a good job that lead to great career. But I always kept tabs on the owner looking for the time and place to get some revenge and even a few times considered some more juvenile methods.

Eventually she made a career for herself in a similar industry.

Just short of twenty years passed….and now I was very senior in my chosen professional, but instead of working for a a small firm I was a leader in a very large national company that hired firms.

As it turns out we had a large contract come up that I was the lead executive on the procurement team in the area The Firm operated in.

Things have changed a bit over the years but bidding on these contracts was at the firm’s expense at the time back in the early 2000’s.

When the old nemesis and his company came bidding, she suspected her moment had come.

However to safeguard them from wasting too much money the bidding would be in stages.

Well, sure enough The Owner and his firm put in an exploratory bid.

They were not perfect for the job, but they could actually do it so I assisted in them moving to the next stage, and the next stage and then the final stage.

The easiest thing I could have done was shut them down right away and got a bit of revenge, but they were qualified so I did not do that.

There was some risk to letting them go through to the end though. Though I was the lead, it was a team decision and to be honest if they had the best proposal despite my thirst for revenge I would vote for them.

She took pleasure in delivering the bad news herself.

The proposals and presentation came in and luckily the other firm was a bit better and we went with them.

Normally the executive lead didn’t deliver the bad news in the bid process, but I volunteered to take on the call and that was my little dose of revenge.

It was fun to call The Owner (who had no idea we met 20 years ago) and tell him “we were impressed with your proposal, but it is just not the right fit. I know you must be disappointed to not get the contract, but at least you got great exposure to our process.”

I know I should have used his own words from 20 years ago but I could not bring myself to do it.

The Firm must of done about 200 hours of work on their proposal, so I figured that was payback for my 16 hours with 20 years of interest.

I bet Reddit is going to want to shake her hand!

The top comment says you should always treat everyone with respect.

The sayings are popular for a reason.

People with experience usually know what’s up.

After all, people change jobs all the time.

Every creative has heard the “exposure” argument.

I am so happy for this woman.

I’m also impressed by her patience.

Thought that was satisfying? Check out what this employee did when their manager refused to pay for their time while they were travelling for business.