Things I Found Out By Working With Friends
And now I am doing the business alone
Ever since I was a kid, I hated to work in group, maybe that’s because of the introvert nature inside of me trying to keep me out from everybody. But, you cannot not escape group project, are you?
Even in the college, I hated to work together.
- I hated that I had to wait for everyone to be presence
- I hated that some just played around and became a hindrance
- I hated how your score is actually determined by how they perform as well
- Many things
2014, Things changed, I came back from my exchange student program and some of my college’s best friends just came back as well from another country as well. I went to South Korea and they went to the UK.
We finally decided it’s time to build a business, I partnered with them and everything went very well even until we decided to close the business, but it was not because the business failed, it’s just some personal matters.
Another Lone Wolf Season
I decided to build a business by myself and it’s doing good, it’s still going on though I hated every second of it, not because of the nature of my business but the audience that I should speak to.
Anyway, since they gave me their money, so that’s okay.
But, 2019 I decided to do another partnership with the same expectation.
Never Knew It Would Be This Bad
I partnered with some friends from our church community, and one of them is an employee in a company and the other one is a fresh graduate.
Now here are some things that I learned from the partnership
It’s Important To Set Expectations Up
I used to think we can just handle it out together as a friend, anyway we’re friends!
But in business that’s stupid. Especially, if they don’t get your what you’re saying.
I didn’t know that they would act as another employee! They just sat down waiting for my instructions and idea!
I was shocked, because I expected them to act as a co-owner, but they didn’t and they didn’t know.
It’s Important To Put The Bar Low
In terms of working, I have to admit it that I work like crazy
Sometimes I spend 10–12 hours working, thinking and executing
But apparently they didn’t, one of them was still working in company and came only few times a week after office around 6pm when I had been working there for 10 hours.
The hardest thing was that I had to forgive him because he’s a friend!
I had a very high expectation and he didn’t even try to jump to get it, he just stood there waiting for someone to pick him up.
I was heartbroken! because he promised many things for the business and none of them was fulfilled.
It’s Important To Share The Burden
One thing I learned the hardest was to share the burden, many business books have shared that one advantage of being in a partnership is the ability to share the burden and to share knowledge.
Well the knowledge part maybe I need to skip, but sharing the burden was one thing that I felt really hard to deal with.
One of my partners actually did say like this
“ If you want me to act as your partner then start share your burden with me, maybe I cannot technically help you with all the marketing, operations and stuffs, but we’re friends at least that’s the thing I can help”
I know that’s not really a helpful suggestion to give, but it’s hard to share my burden.
Inside of me there’s like a demon telling me that every failure was my fault, my friends were tired because of me.
I just felt like, everything was my fault and I had to bear all the mistakes I have done.
One of my partners should had worked in a prominent startup in Indonesia, but she chose to work with me and now the chance just gone like that. One of my friends had to work a double job because of me, and now that it failed? I just could not and cannot blame them, because deep inside of me I still feel like
“ This is my fault and I have to bear it “
Conclusion
Many say that if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.
But in my case, by going together far, there might be some awkwardness, fights, disagreements, and many uncomfortable things we may experience.
But aren’t they are the things that help us grow? Pains and scars show that we’ve fought a good battle and we survived, we grew from the battles won.
The same way with partnership, I think it takes a heart to accept other people, their past, background, skills and abilities. Maybe that’s why there is a discipline to discern people’s skill and where to put it in the right play.
