Doing Business With Friends

Friendship is all about fun, so is business

Friendship is all about trust, so is business

Friendship is about giving first, so is business

Friendship is about not expecting any thing in return, which business is not.

And at this point it starts becoming tricky to work with friends as business partners. Now where is the core? The core for any business lies in this last point, business is all about returns and friendship is all about not expecting returns or reciprocation, challenge is to make them coexist. Here is what I have learned over years of doing business with friends.

Friendship must always come first, and business later. The day business comes first between friends, friendship and business both get into a death spiral.

We are not together in this, we are one in this. Together is an inherently weak co-joining word, it demonstrates separation avoided. One is one, no separation, no window for it, no place for negotiations around it.

Friendship is not about empathizing, friendship is about addressing the event or act which leads to need for empathy. Good friendship reduces need for situations which require empathy significantly and this is something which every business can find useful. Friendship keeps business out of conflict zone.

One plus one in business is always equal to 11, if not more. With trust and no vested interest as given, moving to the others viewpoint is just a matter of analyzing merit and has no iota of suspicion. Analyzing merit is often a mathematical model and you can easily derive a conclusion.

Friendship encourages approaching business problems differently, two approaches with same commitment.

Friendship encourages innovation, you have someone who keeps your back, while you hit the ground running and gets in shovels, if needed.

Friends are generous with each other, businesses run by friends get generosity as its DNA. Generosity is good for society and all stakeholders, raises the ethics bar higher.