when you're in a business relationship
you're in a marriage and their
extracurricular life is going to get
dragged into the business i promise you
in this video i want to give you the
keys to having a terrible terrible
partnership and the reason we're talking
about in this perspective is because my
my my big hero charlie munger talked
about inverted thinking as one of the
best ways to solve problems so rather
than think how do i have an amazing
partnership let's think about how would
i guarantee a miserable terrible
partnership that would uh definitely
ensue in a terrible breakup with lots of
lawyers and all the paperwork and just
honestly ideally take forever and result
in no benefit all right and if you don't
know hi my name is alex mosey i own
acquisition.com it's a portfolio of
companies over 100 million i make these
videos because i hope that you make lots
and lots of money from them and then
hopefully you apply to become a
portfolio company with us as long as
you're doing you know three to let's say
20 million dollars a year and ideally an
internet business now that being said
let's rock and roll on how to have a
terrible partnership now as somebody who
has a lot of partnerships um it has
taken me a very long time to get here
and i have learned a lot along the way
and the beauty of having stories is that
you can get the lessons without the
scars and so i will give you let's see
one two three four five six seven eight
nine ten ten different things that you
can do to guarantee absolutely atrocious
terrible partnership that you wish you
could just not live anymore right that
is that's what's gonna happen if we can
make this partnership as terrible as
we're going to shoot for here all right
so number one is that we're going to
make sure that they have the exact same
knowledge base as you all right so this
person that you're going to do business
with knows the exact same stuff at you
there's no stuff that they know that you
don't know all right because that way
one of you is not unnecessary all right
and so this is a great way to have a
terrible start to a partnership one of
you being unnecessary to begin with
which means both of you are giving away
half your equity for no incremental
benefit it's also not very good for the
business because why would you do that
so that being said number one have the
same knowledge base and maybe even if
we're being crazy which we are right
throw into the same experiences right if
you both worked at the same place doing
the same thing why not start a business
together doing the exact same thing
brilliant i know all right so number two
is time right make sure that uh they
have the same amount of time as you all
right or disproportionate and what i
mean there is the big three on
partnerships is knowledge money time
right which means they either have to
have knowledge you don't have they got
to have money you don't have they got to
have time you don't have right and so if
you have no time make sure they don't
have time too right now if you do have
time and they have time then you're fine
but the thing is then you'd have to look
at one of the other three parts of this
equation in order to make sure that it's
still a terrible partnership all right
so make sure that you're misaligned on
time all right the next one is money if
you're getting into a partnership if uh
one of you has money and the other
doesn't then that's value that's being
out of the relationship but if uh you're
going to partner with somebody and they
don't have money that you don't have
they don't have knowledge that you don't
have and they don't have time they don't
have then why would you do the
partnership i don't know but it is a
great way to have a terrible partnership
which is what the purpose of this video
is now that being said let's say that
somehow we still figured out a way that
we got in a relationship where one of us
didn't have the knowledge of the timer
didn't have the money that the other
person had we got together okay cool
there's still more ways that we can we
can torpedo this thing just wait buckle
up so the next one is that we can make
sure that we have different expectations
of one another and the business all
right so it's like hey what do i expect
you to do what do you expect me to do
right and those expectations we want to
make sure and this is number five is
that there's no agreements we don't
record it anywhere we don't write it
down we do it on a handshake because
we're old school yeah great way to have
a terrible business relationship and the
reason that people don't want to do that
is because usually they don't want to
have the hard conversations all right
they don't want to say what happens if
this goes wrong right and like what do
you expect you really expect me to take
the trash out every day like they want
to have this unspoken expectation you
have unspoken expectations of you know
what's going to be magical where you you
don't actually have to have hard
conversations with people and if you
can't have a hard conversation with a
partner before even doing business
before you are even married before you
there is even money or stakes on the
table or equity value that's been grown
then dear god you're not gonna have a
good conversation at the end all right
so if someone's like i don't do
agreements just walk away i just i've
been doing this like just walk away it's
only like very very very weird people do
that like banks banks don't just give
you money without expectatio like come
on like this is real world and i used to
i remember earlier on i i heard someone
tell me that and i was like oh i don't
want to be the guy he's like i'm the
type of person that if you can't uh
shake your hand then blah blah and i
just i just don't i just don't trust
people that much so the idea for me is
make sure the paper says we needed to
say but then trust the person right
which is like i hope that we never have
like we write these contracts with the
intention of never having to look at
them right but we still use the contract
as a vehicle to facilitate dialogue
around difficult topics and to have
shared expectations in a way that we
both understand them and agree right
that is the purpose of the contract it's
not to get lawyers involved purpose of
the contract is that we have clear
expectation that is why contracts exist
clear expectations on agreements all
right so if we're making sure that we
have a terrible partnership we got to
have all the same knowledge we got to
have disproportionate time or money
right so all those things time money
knowledge we're we're all matched on
those which means that one of us isn't
necessary on top of that we have
different expectations we didn't write
it down so there's no agreements and
there's no expectations have been
communicated about what you're gonna do
what i'm gonna do all right now the next
one this big one give away everything
all right so make sure that you give
away everything in the partnership and
do a disproportionate amount of work at
the onset because that way you'll just
definitely make sure that you can garner
a resentment towards the other person
and the flip side can be true too if you
know the other person doing a lot of
work uh then you think to yourself oh
well i'm going to squeeze as much out of
them as i possibly can well what's going
to happen they're going to resent you
and they're going to try and renegotiate
later once reality sets in so if you can
think a few steps ahead of the person
rather than saying like oh i'm going to
get them just say like hey i don't know
if this is going to be equitable in the
future like give them more and you'll
actually start to create a relationship
rather than a negotiated contractual
agreement which at the end of the day
that's all contracts are supposed to do
is just outline the expectations between
two parties that's it all right now the
next one is that we want to make sure
that we have not we won't have a
misaligned three things mission values
and vision all right which means that we
don't actually want to take this
business to the same place and this may
sound hilarious to you but you would be
amazed at the amount of partners that we
get on the phone with that i'm like what
do you guys want to do this business and
what person's like i think we should go
this way the others like i think we
should go that way i'm like i think that
you should figure that out right or one
of you shouldn't be here right figure it
out all right which is where do we want
to go and the next one is the values
which is how we're going to get there
right what are the things that are
important to us about how we deal with
other humans right what are those values
and if some people have different values
becomes very difficult to do business
even if you want to accomplish the same
thing because you want to do it
different ways right and that'll create
endless strife and conflict throughout
now the last one is what you consider
lifestyle right which is what are you uh
similar interests lifestyle uh it's very
difficult to do business with somebody
if you're like you're a dave ramsey
saver and you you know you're you live
far below your means and you're doing
business with somebody who lives far
above their means and goes into debt all
the time because the thing is is when
you're in a business relationship you're
in a marriage and their extracurricular
life is going to get dragged into the
business i promise you i promise you it
is going to get dragged in right and so
you've got to look just like you uh you
marry the girl you marry the family that
whole thing um it's the same thing with
business if like they've got all this
crazy stuff going on in their personal
life it's a great way to guarantee that
that stuff is going to trickle into your
business and the thing is is if you have
an unreliable partner creates an
unreliable relationship which creates an
unreliable business and so it's a great
way to have a terrible partnership all
right and so when we're thinking about
partners big picture i give you two
frameworks and then some in-betweens so
framework one is that they got to have
knowledge money or time that you don't
have if both of you have the exact same
experience knowledge time and money one
of you isn't required i know crazy the
thing is is just because you need
something for example if i need an
accountant for business doesn't mean i
have to partner with my accountant it
means i have to pay them for services so
just because you have a need doesn't
mean they have to have equity all right
it's a big aha moment here if you're
like well i don't know how to do that he
does it's like well can you pay someone
to do it like equity is the most
expensive thing that you give up in a
relationship so you want to make sure if
you especially want to build something
big then you're giving away equity to
people who are going to really drive the
growth and you have to see this thing 10
years in the future which no one thinks
10 years in the future anyways which is
why everyone's small okay so boom so
knowledge money time you got to check
those boxes make sure that you're
aligned there next one is expectations
agreements all right make sure that
they're equitable make sure that they're
well understood and making sure that
they're documented right if you do those
things then it's very very it's much
less likely that you're gonna have a
terrible partnership you can still have
one but it's much less likely all right
and the point of this video is to
guarantee a terrible partnership all
right now the next big framework is that
mission values and similar interests it
actually works the same way in marriages
as dozen partnerships and to be real
it's very similar so you got to make
sure that you want to do the same thing
with the business big picture you got to
make sure you want to do it the same way
right and then you got to have similar
interests and lifestyles right which is
making sure that they don't have a messy
life which you want to be proud to
associate with the other person that
you're doing business with and i'm
saying proud not okay with but proud to
associate with them you want other
people to meet them just like you want
to meet you know the girl meets the
parents you want to be proud to present
this person not like crap right big
picture great ways to guarantee a
terrible partnership is if you do all
those things all right so on the flip
side make sure that they have time money
and knowledge that you don't have right
either they got money you don't have
they got time you don't have they don't
they have knowledge you don't have or
experience right so they can bring
something table you don't already have
so one of you or both of you are
required and that the company grows
based on the shared skill sets that both
of you have all right you want to make
sure that you set expectations that you
document them and then you make sure
that they're equitable all right because
if you do that then it's very unlikely
that you're going to fail right and the
next one is that you want to make sure
that there's aligned mission values and
similar interests you want to deal with
the types of people who see the world
the same way as you have the biggest
long-term goals and they want to do the
process of getting from where you are to
where you want to go the same way you do
and the easiest litmus test is if you
present both of you with the same data
would you make the same decision if
these answers yes then you'll have far
less conflict in your partnership over
the long haul and so the idea is can i
find people who have complementary skill
sets but align mission values and
interests if you can do that you can
make room for a magical rather than
terrible partnership all right keeping
awesome donation lots of love and i'll
catch you guys next video bye mozzie
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