Interdependence

As outlined in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People interdependence is a graduation from independence. When my partnership crashed and burned I set out to go on my own and start a company that would not make the mistakes of the previous one, my first entrepreneurial venture.

I still believed in strength of numbers so I set out to partner with a local kitchen and bath supplier for construction and another college friend for real estate. Both ventures began to remind me of the previous failed one with both partners sharing some of the characteristics which I believed caused the previous company to fail. Thankfully my partner in real estate felt like he was doing too much work and decided to go on his own. I walked away from the construction partnership quickly after that and started buildPROS. This was my independence. As the business grew I brought on board some of my most talented and driven friends, or in a way one could say they fell in my lap. This is when, once again, I graduated to interedependence. The moral here is, no one can do it on their own. In business be very careful how you choose your strategic partners and employees and always retain the proper amount of control, allowing yourself to make the final decision when necessary.