In colonial times, men were men.

They hunted animals and dueled at dawn. They went weeks without showering. They lived for days off the land and spent their nights drinking whiskey.

I am not one of those men.

I hunt down good sushi bars and pull hamstrings playing softball on Sunday mornings. I never go more than a few days without showering. (Note to readers: Stay away from my house on the weekends.) I drink wine out of a box. I drive a minivan.

Mike Smaleren, my penny-pinching friend, however, is more of a man than me. He owns a 40-person carpentry company, works both inside and outside in bad weather, sometimes chews tobacco and drives a pickup truck. Whereas I'm afraid of what will happen if I mix red and white wine, Mike is fearless - especially when it comes to his work.

Not all contractors are fearless like Fearless Mike. (Actually, I don't call him this name to his face because I'm afraid he'll punch me.)

For example, there's a lawsuit (www.philly.com/philly/news/local/42113052.html) currently making its way through the federal and state court systems where a bunch of contractors are suing a general contractor who is, in turn, suing a steakhouse owner. No, it's not about a bad porterhouse. You guessed it: It's about money. Unpaid money to be more exact. Seems like the contractors - painters, electricians and the like - did work for the general contractor and didn't get paid. And it seems like the general contractor didn't get paid by the steakhouse chain. Seems like a familiar story.

A total mess.

Haven't we learned? Why are contractors still chasing down money from their customers? People have been building stuff for thousands of years. Surely someone's figured out a way to just get paid on time and avoid these problems. Right?

Well, Fearless Mike has. Why? Because Fearless Mike, a true penny-pincher, has three principles when it comes to a job: Any changes get written up, payments need to be current and, most important, if things get out of the comfort zone, he walks.

The story behind the steakhouse lawsuit is that the contractors were forced to do a ton of work on a very short timetable. The job was a moving target. Sometimes there were written change orders. Other times, there weren't. The project managers were forced into doing more work with promises of payment. They were swept up into the project.

"Not my game," says Fearless Mike.

Fearless Mike doesn't like to do anything out of contract. If his men are asked to perform additional services, then he wants a written change order. "This is my protection," he says. And it's not such an unreasonable request. If a customer wants more work done, then Fearless Mike just likes to put it all in writing. Simple.

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