There’s something good about a handshake deal: it says "I trust you." We don’t want to replace that. The goal is to keep the trust and add the one thing a handshake lacks — a shared record of what you shook on.
What a handshake does and doesn’t do
A handshake captures intent and goodwill. What it doesn’t capture is detail: the exact amount, the date, the condition, the "what if." Months later, the goodwill is still there but the details have blurred — and that gap is where good relationships get strained.
When a handshake is genuinely enough
- The stakes are low and the deal completes quickly.
- There’s nothing to remember later (no future date, deliverable, or condition).
- You’d feel silly writing it down.
When to back it with something signed
- There’s money over time, a deadline, or a condition.
- You’ll need to remember the specifics months from now.
- The relationship matters enough that you don’t want a misunderstanding to test it.
You can have both
Writing it down doesn’t undo the handshake — it honors it. "Let’s both keep a copy so neither of us has to remember" keeps the warmth and adds the proof. That takes about a minute. → Get the handshake in writing