business partners Tag

“There were the best of times, there were the worst of times.” These sentences begin the famous book, “The Tale of Two Cities” by Alexandra Dumas. Partnerships can be great and at times terrible depending on the situation. Disagreements, squabbles, debates, and arguments can create difficult discussions for partners.

Remember the saying, “two’s company, three’s a crowd?” The saying focusing on the observation many parents have made about how well two children can get along and how quickly cooperation and sharing can evaporate and the twosome becomes a threesome: one child is usually left out. A two-person partnership can work well for a long period of time. Problems can emerge, though, if one partner develops a close working alliance or affiliation with an outside party. Whether it be three children or three adults, a three-person relationship can be difficult to manage.

Where there is danger, there lurks opportunity; whenever there is opportunity, there lurks danger. The two are inseparable.” - Earl Nightingale. Breakdowns are inevitable in a partnership, especially if there are big dreams, goals, and risks. In strong partnerships, partners may get upset, frustrated, or angry but they don’t succumb to negative thinking and pessimism. They don’t bring up the past; they learn to move on. They use life’s challenges as opportunities for learning, breakthrough, and recommittment to action. Resilient partners learn to “right themselves and regain their footing.” Similar to the experience in piloting a small sailboat where capsizing is a constant companion, resilient partners simply figure out what to do to get the operation back in position after a project “capsizes.”