There's a Ring Lardner story from 1915 about a ballplayer named Frank X. Farrell. Nobody on the team called him Frank. They called him Alibi Ike, because the man had an explanation for everything. He takes a called strike three: "I lost count. I thought it was three and one, and I took a strike." He boots one in the field: "His glove wasn't broke in good yet." And here's the part that kept that story alive for over a hundred years. He did it for the good plays too. He'd rip a double and tell the dugout, "if I hadn't hit quite so quick at that one I bet it'd of cleared the center-field fence." One of his teammates sums the whole man up in a single line: "he can't hit near as good as he can apologize." Now here's your version. "They ghosted me." No, they didn't. When a deal dies, agency owners reach for the reason fast, and the reason always lives outside the building. Bad lead. Bad timing. Cheap prospect. Then they go find another lead and run the exact same play that just failed, because the alibi already closed the case. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗯𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 - "They ghosted me." That's not a rude prospect. That's a missing follow-up sequence. Most deals die in the silence between touch two and touch seven, and you stopped at two. - "They were just tire kickers." That's not a bad lead. That's a missing qualification step. You found out on the proposal what you should have found out in the first ten minutes. - "They couldn't afford it." That's not their budget. That's your diagnosis. Nobody has money for a service. Everybody has money for a problem that's costing them more than the fix. - "That client was a nightmare." That's not a personality. That's scope you never put in writing. A nightmare client is usually a normal client inside an undefined agreement. None of those four is a lie. That's exactly what makes them dangerous. Every one is partly true, and partly true is enough to stop you from looking any further. An alibi isn't dishonesty. It's a delete key.