Costa Rican business culture operates on connections. If you can get well connected, you’ll be a success. If you’re not well connected, any number of mysterious obstacles might just appear in your path. It depends, of course, on the kind of business you’re doing, but you might want to consider finding a local partner. A good local partner would give you the business connections and the cultural knowledge to succeed more quickly. A bad business partner, however, would ruin you. Costa Rica has both kinds, and people cheating each other – even friends and family members – is surprisingly common. So proceed with caution. Any partnership should be carefully negotiated with the help of a lawyer, and should only be entered into if the partner has something you really need.

As you get deeper into Costa Rican culture and business dealings, you’ll likely have your own insights and conjectures about what makes these people tick. Hopefully this chapter gave you a good head start.