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The organization of the business
In the fairytale of entrepreneurship, your partners work as diligently as you. They watch your back as you build armies of skilled employees, take strategic market positions, and share the triumphs of vanquished competition and exceeded milestone. During the early years of my partnership, I imagined my partner sharing important family moments-whether that meant beaming at each other’s children at graduation or leaning on each other in times of personal loss and need. It hardly mattered. My belief was I had formed a team to tackle the coming journey.
As a seasoned entrepreneur of fifteen years who had never had a business partner, I imagined the new venture as more of brotherhood. We would combine our Rolodexes, our life experiences, and be twice as prepared for any eventuality. We had different styles, of course, and very different strengths, which would bring differing and invaluable perspectives to each new business problem. We were roughly the same age and both had new families with young children.
Although I didn’t know him well, his family was well-known and respected, and his educational credentials were solid. Our fledgling company was growing in triple digits and cash was pouring in. By all appearances, we were well-positioned for a happy ending to the story.
Like any good “B” movie, after the build up just detailed, you know the train wreck is eminent. Yet as a participant, I never saw it coming. There was one moment a year into the venture when I took a cryptic e-mail, which had raised my suspicion, to my lawyer. Together we puzzled over it until, with great feigned wisdom, he responded, “If you can’t trust your partners, who can you trust?” Who indeed? The opportunity to discover a big problem was missed and we pressed ahead.