Every small business owner I’ve ever helped or worked with has had a soft spot for distressed and luckless. I do believe most small business owners have actually worked their way up. The small business owners you have to worry about are the professional proletariats who came from high earning jobs and therefore lower stakes. Those ones are the backstabbers and scumbags. The ones who sacrificed are genuinely good people. The guy who makes less than the professional proletariats trying to keep his bar or coffee shop afloat is simply not your enemy.