Synergy opens the door to amazing possibilities
What is Synergy and Is It Automatically There?
Synergy is one of my favorite concepts. It's much like Warren Buffett who enjoys "Compounding Interest", while athletes love "Big Mo" on their side. Synergy to a mathematician might be multiplication or exponentials, but whatever background you come from, Synergy is important in any relationship, and critical in business partnerships as you will see in the illustration below.
Basically speaking, Synergy is the concept of the total being greater than the sum of two forces or objects.
Is it possible for 1 + 1 = 3? Scientifically, "Matter can neither be created, nor destroyed, only transformed", right? So what's going on here?
This magic formula is brought to life through the art of building relationships. Unity, teamwork, and synergy itself can only be possible when great minds think and move alike in the same positive direction.
Unfortunately, true synergy does not happen overnight. It takes long hours, late nights, early mornings, lots of driving, meetings, and lots of time building the business together. The good news; all that time spent together builds trust in each other and strengthens the relationship.
Trust is a critical factor in building a business. Without trust, it is not a positive business relationship. Being in business together holds you to an even higher standard, so if partners cannot trust each other, they should part ways quickly. - Romans
When complete trust is present and the relationship is built, then the synergy can appear in many forms of progress, new ideas, improvements and advancements and a profitability beyond any dollar figure.
1. Build the relationship by spending BUSINESS time together. There's no substitute.
2. Learn to completely TRUST your partner. Without trust, you have nothing.
3. Embrace CHANGE. Let collaboration and progress propel you forward!
Unfortunately, in one of our many business partnerships, we have a couple that does not seem to grasp any of the above three, especially #1. (or 2 or 3!) They have NEVER been in business or managed anything from a business perspective before they met us. They were very enthusiastic and had tons of promise, so we gave them an opportunity.
We have been working together to build a new harvest business together for more than a year and a half now, but they continue to fail to show up at our agreed-upon, preset weekly meetings or to listen to our consulting advice. There always seems to be an excuse for cancelling each week. I have been through enough experiences to recognize this for what it is; a serious lack of commitment under challenging circumstances.
Tough times require tough commitments and this couple just wasn't ready for that yet. They seem more determined to ignore all solid legal and ethical advice that we give them, which is now causing serious issues with our company together. If things do not change, we will have no other option than to discontinue their failed partnership with us. We will not be abused, lied to, deceived or stolen from, whether that be money, time or talent and then continue in this abusive 'relationship'. This partnership has caused me more stress on my heart and mind than any relationship or partnership EVER.
Golden Egg Refused
Therefore, to stay out of the legal trouble they are causing and to ELIMINATE stress in our lives, we are happy to offer the business to them at cost to own the whole thing. That way they could continue to pursue their idea and have full control of it, including all technical support from us at no additional charge. We just want to see them succeed. After all, I coached the kid in little league baseball.
Shipwreck on our 16th Wedding Anniversary
UPDATE MAY 29, 2020 : Credit cards got switched out to my personal, money went missing from our joint account and fishy things were happening in April and May. Then on May 29th, 2020 confessions were made and recorded. He informed us that they quit, in the same breath as I told him he was done. The partnership was effectively over as we realized we could never operate a business with them at that point. See RULE 2 above. The whole reason we offered him help in the first place was to overcome threats of divorce and thoughts of suicide. He credits us for helping him through that. But it wasn't ever about me, I just follow God's lead. So maybe that was my job in all of this. Only God knows. We did our best to help them, however, they refused to listen to us and are now operating a clone business under an assumed name, nearly identical to our existing business - that they shipwrecked. In the end, if they can manage the business on their own; properly, ethically and legally, then we are supportive of their efforts because they are helping the harvesters find labor. I could sue them and cause all kinds of legal trouble but I won't! Plus he could also lose his DISABILITY benefits if SSA knew he was working full time and making 5X his disability check, but that is NOT my heart or my goal. We want them to succeed so we will just pray they they do the right thing and be honest with the harvesters in their new cloned business.
A Lesson for All
This is a great lesson to learn from. Be sure to follow the 3 guidelines set forth above, or you too could end up thinking that just because you think you know somebody, doesn't mean you know what they know. It takes time to be mentored. It takes TIME TOGETHER to build a business properly.
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