The Hidden Test Every Business Partnership Must Survive

A note to young leaders.

Last weekend, a young entrepreneur sought my advice on how best to preserve harmony in business partnership.

This is what I told him:

“The hardest test for a partnership to survive is sudden and spectacular success. The second hardest is sudden and spectacular failure. The most stable outcome, by far, is mediocre success.”

Partners accustomed to saying “we” in the flat years, start saying “me” and “you” in the vertical ones.

Gilbert and Sullivan survived years of modest returns and then, at the very height of their fame, fell out over the cost of a carpet. The Beatles did not break up while playing in the dingy clubs of Hamburg. It is a reliable pattern: partnerships endure the climb and perish at the summit.

Failure at least offers a brief unity: a common enemy in the shape of a market downturn, a change in regulations or sheer bad luck. But the truce is short. Blame needs a target, and the partner across the desk is conveniently located.

Which leaves the unfashionable middle. The venture that neither sinks nor soars is remarkably stable. There is no triumph for pride to claim, no fortune for greed to divide, no crown for jealousy to covet, no ruin for shame to explain.

None of this is a case for aiming low. Youth that aims low is a waste of youth.

It’s merely a reminder that harmony is often preserved not by virtue – which is rare – but by the absence of occasions for vice.

Money in large and sudden amounts, whether arriving or departing, does not change people. It magnifies them. Make sure your partner is someone who can bear magnification. Better still, make sure you are.

And if that counsel fails you – remember at least that the carpet is not worth fighting over.