Why Did K.C. Irving Refuse a Loan His Father Would Guarantee?

Shane Parrish says K.C. Irving refused a line of credit unless it stood in his own name, even though his father would have guaranteed the loan.

He arrived in St. John with about $5,000 in cash and five years of borrowing without a missed payment. Ford wanted an aggressive salesman, and the franchise cost him nothing. When he asked a bank for credit, it said yes on one condition: his father had to guarantee it. Irving knew his father would have signed, and he refused anyway. The manager of a rival bank, an old family friend, then walked into the showroom offended that Irving had come to St. John and not done business with him. Irving said he would be happy to, on one condition. His father's name stayed off the loan. By the next morning he was with the bank's regional supervisor, and he got the credit on his own signature.

Years later he described banking in one line. He always borrowed a lot of money, he said, and he did not really know of a bad bank.