Great Partnerships

The Law of Attraction, “the right mindset”, and “just believing” are all great, but what most people seem to miss is that they have to think and put in the work to be successful in business. My husband’s favorite saying is “People don’t want to think.” I am beginning to believe him as I hear about so many “takers” for get rich ‘effortlessly’  programs that I see offered on the web.

The ads read “Join my (insert name of a precious metal here) Club, Mastermind, Group” “Go from 0 to 1 million in a year” “I will teach you how I did ‘it’.” “Read these testimonials from all of the others who have also done ‘it’!” “Get in before it’s too late.” “Just pay me $100,000 and you are in”.

These ‘takers’ should wake up! They can start by reading the names on the testimonials. Most of these offers seem to be circle games of ‘insiders’– A joins B’s group, B joins C’s group, and then C joins A’s group. So the insiders’ $100,000s just get passed around the circle.

The only money “made” is from outsiders X, Y, and Z who join one of the groups and pay the fee without getting it back from an ‘insider’. The outsiders you will supposedly get their pay off when they follow the teachings of the guru and do ‘it’. The only catch is that by the time the guru tells them how to do ‘it’, ‘it’ doesn’t work any more because other outside suckers have caught on. They found out that this is no magic ‘it’- and they have moved on to the next . Hopefully, many of them will finally realize that they do have to think for themselves, put in the work and invest a lot more than money to become successful.

“Nothing is as simple as we hope it will be.” Jim Horning

I was recently asked, “What is the most important requirement for partnership success?” My one word answer – “Trust.” 

When a deep level of trust exists between partners, they are each able to take great risks - risks they might not have taken without the trust. The mutual trust provides a safe space to step out in faith and achieve what might appear difficult, impossible, or overwhelming. Remember that people live up to expectations - the more you trust, the more your partner will achieve new heights. When such trust exists in your business relationship it supports growth, improvement, and excellence in the business.     

Follow these guidelines to build and strengthen trust:  

1. Respect your partner at all times.
2. Listen to your partner - make sure you know what they really mean.
3. Don’t make major decisions unilaterally.
4. Honor your agreements to everyone.
5. Realize that you are always connected to your partner.
6. Back up your partner’s decisions to outsiders, even if you disagree.
7. Be consistent.
8. Be honest with yourself and your partner.
9. Have clear boundaries.
10. Do not over promise.

“Trust each other again and again. When the trust level gets high enough, people transcend apparent limits, discovering new and awesome abilities for which they were previously unaware.” David Armistead

• reading The 10 biggest lies entrepreneurs tell themselves http://bit.ly/14iSQH from @econsultancy #

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1. Insist on being right all the time
2. Compete with your partner instead of collaborating
3. Make up the rules as you go along
4. Criticize your partner in front of other people
5. Complain instead of requesting what you really want
6. Don’t forgive or forget your partners mistakes
7. Spread gossip about your partner
8. Keep score of who does more work
9. Second-guess your partner’s decisions
10. Get distracted by outside events
11. Avoid difficult conversations
12. Launch personal attacks against your partner
13. Blame your partner for your problems  

Entrepreneurship was the topic of discussion at a meeting I just attended. One question was – “Do you want your child to follow in your entrepreneurial footsteps?” All 8 people at my table said yes (7 women and one man). I was surprised that so many others feel the same way as I do, given our current economy. Not only do I think that entrepreneurship is a great path to follow but I also think that instilling entrepreneurial values in children is a worthy goal, regardless of what they decide to do with their lives.

You can partner with your children to lay a foundation for your them to have prosperous lives, even if they ultimately decide that entrepreneurship isn’t for them.  A few of the valuable entrepreneurial principles that they can learn from you are:

Goal setting – In many ways, children are hard-wired as natural goal-setters.  The problem is, they usually fail to follow through with concrete action.  You can teach them how to reach a goal by breaking it down into a series of easily reachable mini-goals.  For example, if they want to buy a new video game that costs $20 and they can save $5 per week, help them make a chart that will track their progress.  Every week when they save $5, let them color in the next portion of the chart that shows their progress.  You’ll be teaching them the importance of following through on goals with clearly defined steps. Celebrate with them when they buy the video game. 

Motivation – Keeping children motivated requires plenty of encouragement and positive reinforcement.  For example, if you’re teaching your child the importance of saving money for a rainy day and they want to tap into the piggy bank, praise them for how much they have saved already. Also remind them that being patient now will pay huge dividends later. Consider paying a small amount of interest on their savings, so they can experience how the real world of investing works.

Responsibility – You may not be able to teach responsibility but seeing how you are responsible for the success of your business and do not blame others for your mistakes will encourage your children to act responsibly. They will see you considering options and making choices that may be difficult at times. As an entrepreneur you take action and if something doesn’t work you do something else. You do not depend on others to bail you out. Seeing this in you will encourage your children to be self-reliant and responsible for their own actions and choices.

Teaching your kids these principles of entrepreneurship will, of course, come in handy if they ultimately decide to follow in your footsteps.  However, self-reliant, motivated people who reach their goals are in relatively short supply.  By instilling these values in your children you can help to ensure a lifetime of prosperity for them.  And you’ll be doing your part to help create another generation of success-minded entrepreneurs who can ultimately change the world for the better!

I was at two different women’s business networking meetings last week where the subject of ex-husbands and ex-business partners came up. While these very savvy businesswomen were “complaining” about lingering problems caused by their ex-partners they were also talking about exciting new partnerships that were unfolding for them.

This all started me thinking about the likelihood of these new personal or business partnerships surviving. After all, statistics indicate that 50% of first marriages fail but the failure rate of second marriages is a staggering 70%.

Business partnerships fare even worse. According to the Harvard Business School they start out with a 70% failure rate and who knows,  like marriages this rate may climb for second partnerships.

This raises questions for me. Why are people jumping in again without learning from their mistakes and past experience? Why aren’t they learning from other people’s mistakes? Why do they think that next time will be different? Are they spending the time and energy to make more intelligent decisions? Do they realize how they may be contributing to these failures?

And the big question for me is - how can I help?  Since, in my mind one ex is enough. 

It came up again today in a coversation with a client - “How to maximize your network building ability at a professional conference.” Some of the best advice I have seen is from Keith Ferrazzi’s book ‘Never Eat Alone’ in the chapter called Conference Commando. I have decided to share (with the permission of the author) a tip-filled excerpt from that chapter.  You can download it by clicking this link  15tipskeithferrazzicc.pdf

I am back to this blog after a six month hiatus during which I was trying to figure out how to tie together my various offerings. I have decided to concentrate on my core message that the way to success in life and business is through building great partnerships of all types.

My plan is to share insights and information here that will help you build a great life by connecting and collaborating with yourself, others and the world. So, you may see posts on personal relationships, business relationships, marriage, family, networking, business building, or anything else I believe will help you to grow and prosper. 

Jean Charles, Business Relationship Coach

The last but not least stage of partnership is Completion. Just as it is advisable to plan your exit strategy from any business, it is important to know when to dissolve and how to break up with a business partnership. The process should be defined in your written agreements, but even so many times issues arise that are not clearly articulated in the formal agreement. So, it is important to commit to:

·         Delineate each partner’s preferred exit strategy

·         Clearly define what each partner expects to get out of the business

·         Never discuss merger or acquisition proposals without informing all partners beforehand

·         Set up probable timelines

·         Plan thoroughly for possible changes in the partnership structure

Once you have mastered the art of cooperation you can move on to the most exciting and productive stage of any partnership. This is when the productive energy just seems to flow between partners, they feed off of each other’s ideas and actions and the results are exponentially more than the sum of their efforts. This is the Synergy stage. This is the fun stage and where you want the partnership to stay, so commit to:

·         Acknowledge, appreciate and reward each partner’s contributions

·         Keep adding creative energy to the business

·         Communicate differences of opinion without becoming argumentative or defensive

·         Truly value your partner’s differences

·         Take full responsibility for reaching your own business goals

The more partners work together in a synergistic high-performance team, the more productive and profitable the business will become. Synergy is exciting with possibilities of truly significant gain and improvement so it is worth the effort and commitment.

The fifth and last stage of partnership is really the one that should be considered in the beginning of any partnership and usually is not. Come back here to read it soon so you can be prepared to build prosperity through partnership.