NOT ALONE EVEN IF YOU WANTED TO BE

"No employer today is independent of those about him. He cannot succeed alone, no matter how great his ability or capital. Business today is more than ever a question of cooperation."

Orison Swett Marden, late 19th/early 20th century American author.

My career has largely been starting, running, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing, in my own companies.

In all those times, the outcome was the result of what I did, what my partners did, and what our employees did.

You may think it won't be that way for you, and if so, that is your first mistake of many yet to come.

WILL YOU BE SINGING OR WEEPING?

"When two friends have a common bank account, one sings and the other weeps."

Proverb

So, thinking of going into business with a friend?

Those who advise against it do so for good reason.

Just remember you are partners first, friends second.

PARTNERS

"By the time a partnership dissolves, it has dissolved."

John Updike

20th century American writer

The best way I know to end a friendship is to become partners

Works for marriages too.

Not always, but often enough.

Let's Shake On It

"By the time a partnership has dissolved, it has dissolved."

John Updike

20th century American writer

Like marriages, business partnerships are relatively easily to enter with termination consequences that often ends the business as well.

Be careful!

The Best Of . . . . ?

"The course of true love never did run smooth."

William Shakespeare

16th century English playwright

Is the test of "true love" the same for business partners?

Partnerships: Do The Pieces Fit?

"Our industry is littered with strategic partnerships gone south . . . Generally strategic partnerships don't work out unless one partner is acquired."

Denise Sangster

Channel Analyst and CEO Global Touch
Quote suggested by Kerry Moyer, CEA Senior Director

Denise is right but I would qualify her last statement by adding, and even then they often don't work (when one partner is acquired by another.)

This refers to one company joining with another but the concept holds all the way down to one-to-one personal relations.

Short of one side attempting to bludgeon the other into doing what they want (which rarely works and then only for a short time), successful partnerships are based on win/win.

Agree/disagree?

Business Relations: Friends First, Second Or At All?

"A friendship founded on a business is a good deal better than a business founded on a friendship."

John D. Rockefeller

What makes good friends may not make good business partners with the reverse being true as well.

Would (have) you go into business with a friend?