Business is Personal – Case Study #1

Heard a familiar story today from a good friend of mine down in Los Angeles, about 2 business partners, at the end of the day, not being honest with one another.

Specifically, my friend had a product development consulting firm with a partner who she seemed to work well with for a little over a year.  Though they had a few cool clients and projects to work on, due to a variety of reasons, my friend decided to make the transition from being her own boss (for the most part) to working for a larger company that was growing and wanted to seemingly provide her with an ideal opportunity to do what she does best.

When the relationship with her original partner ended, both decided to go their own ways.  My friend recently found out however that her former partner had in fact, though claiming she had no intentions on doing so, contacted all of their old clients almost immediately and started working a few projects with them.  These were clients mind you who my friend had brought into the original consulting firm to begin with from pre existing relationships.  Again, this was all while the former partner was denying to my friend that she was in fact doing just this.

My friend asked what I thought she should do about it, having heard a few of the stories of people I’ve worked with in the past pulling similar, shady maneuvers. Without even thinking I responded that she should simply move on and not make it into a big deal. Her time was best spent moving things forward with her own life and career instead of trying to point fingers and hold her former partners feet to the fire, as even if she were to corner her former partner and get her to admit what she’s been doing, what really would it accomplish other than to feed her own ego by watching the person get caught in a lie?

I told her that if she still had a personal relationship with the clients her former partner was still working with, she should keep up relations with them and simply be honest about what was going on in her world, and if it ever came up in conversation, to be honest about what had happened with her former partner, but not to go out of her way with the client to call the former partner out on her behavior. I also said that if she ever came across her former partner again, to try her best to simply ask her about it in as calm and cordial a tone as possible and try to be as civil about it as possible.

The kicker here being that my friend would have been totally fine with her former partner contacting the clients, and would have even helped to make sure the transition and relationship went as smooth as possible.

Again, I think it all comes back to Karma and where people choose to focus their energy and time. My friend has a HUGE heart and is truly one of the most selfless people I know.  She will most definitely forgive her former partner, but clearly she will never forget the partners actions… meaning when it comes time again for her to choose another partner for business, or even recommend someone for a project that her former partner might have some expertise within, she’ll likely look elsewhere. Why?  Because people prefer to do business with people they trust and Business IS Personal.

Burned bridges take A LOT of time and energy to rebuild and 99% of the time, being upfront and honest about ones actions and intentions far outweighs any short term gain by trying to hide what you’re working on or really trying to accomplish.  In an age where information is so easily accessable, it’s also just rediculous to think that someone, somewhere, somehow will not eventually see what’s going on and start spreading the news.