Most due diligence problems don’t happen because people skip due diligence.

They happen because the due diligence becomes confirmatory.

Everyone is busy. Everyone is professional. Everyone has checklists.

But the questions shift from:

“What could hurt us here?”

to:

“How do we justify moving forward?”

When that happens, data stops being evidence and becomes a tool.

And that’s when buyers start wanting the valuation to match the deal, instead of wanting the deal to match the valuation.

The irony is that buyers often hire professionals to reduce risk—but then pressure those professionals (subtly or directly) to reduce friction.

That’s not risk management.

That’s risk deferral.

And risk deferred doesn’t disappear—it just shows up later, usually with interest.