Going places together

Whatever the endeavor – love, business, research, training – finding a partner to share the journey is a good thing. To be together with one whom we connect with deeply and who is complementary to us takes us places we can never go alone.

I met my first business partner in 1969. He was 15 years my elder. After working together as colleagues for 13 years, we established our first company together in 1982. Though we were wildly different people, it was the complementary nature of our differences that contributed so much to taking us places together, we could never get to alone. Just one example of many I could cite: I was the person of Italian heritage saying, “It has to look this way. It has to have this sort of style.” He was the person of Swiss-German heritage saying, “I understand, but we have to be able to manufacture it. There are functional limits.” In the end, I bent a little on styling and my partner pushed the functional limits beyond what anyone thought possible. The result was remarkable.

Some 40 years later, we are still in business together. In fact, we collaborated to start another new company – our fourth – just five years ago. We are at a stage in life where we don’t do the heavy lifting of day-to-day operations, but we still seek to contribute from our complementary strengths on a regular basis.

In our work with clients, we see again and again that projects, to be successful, need to be an endeavor shared and carried by more than one person. In line with the proverb, “If you want to run fast, run alone. If you want to run far, run together”, we place a lot of emphasis in our coaching on finding the right people for the right roles, and on the strength that comes from building thriving partnerships and teams.

As we move further into the Advent season, here is our end-of-year wish to you: that you may find the ideal person or team of people to implement dreams dear to you in 2022. Merry Christmas.

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