If it doesn't look right, then it probably isn't

There's a simple rule of business that some people learn the hard way, some discover by example, and some instinctively understand from Day 1.

This rule can be summed up as: if it doesn't look or sound right, then it probably isn't. It covers more or less everything, ranging from doing deals to people to ideas - and especially grandiose projects that come with lavish projections.

I am prompted to write about this by observing the fate of Carson Yeung Ka-sing, who has just embarked on a six-year jail term for money laundering offences.

Yeung is best known as the "unknown" guy from Hong Kong who secured control of Birmingham City Football Club. When he emerged from nowhere to take over the club, I was contacted by some British-based media outlets who wanted to know more about him.

I scrambled around to find this information but, in essence, came up with little more than the fact that he once owned a small chain of hairdressing saloons and seemed to have a lot of money.

How he made the leap from scissors to buying a British football club was hard to explain, producing scepticism about Yeung on my part and disappointment from those asking the questions, who seemed to think that my doubts may have reflected a lack of diligence in researching his background.