Collaborations v. Partnerships

I no longer have a business partner in any true sense of the term.

The IP on which my consulting work is based is shared with my ex-partner in New Zealand. And right now I have a number of collaborators in both spheres of my world (consulting and comedy), especially in comedy in the lead-up to the Edinburgh Fringe.

The truism is that a functioning commercial partnership is like a marriage. It takes communication and shared values and an acceptance that at different times partners will make different contributions to the enterprise but also require different things from it. It's all about managing each other over the long-haul.

My collaborations work best when they are focused and finite. X project will be completed by Y date for Z reward. I find that enthusiasm and commitment to the cause are more important than any broader alignment of personal goals: -

We don't all have to get the same thing out of the project, just as long as each of us get what we wanted

At the conclusion to a successful project there's often a temptation to morph the relationship into a partnership. At 42 I'd rather have a sequence of wonderful collaborations where nothing is assumed at the beginning of each new adventure.