The importance of having a right partner

The past month Nick, Justin, Raúl, and I met for a strategy summit, and we talked about old times, telling some life stories. During those days, we realized that we spent a quarter of our lives together in 47 Degrees (We all are around our 40s), which gave us freaking chills (Jeez!).

If you started a company or experienced any partnership in your professional life, you can see this as it is. A real achievement that says a lot of ourselves, our relationship, and our company. Because one thing is being friends, and another completely different thing is being partners (and also, in our case, being both of the things)

Some companies are formed with selected people from different places, like if you would create a pop band. 47 Degrees is not that case. We are not the Back Street Boys (even though we have the style for being that! 😂), but we have our unique essence.

Let me share with you, what are the items I believe are part of our healthy long professional relationship; even though each history is unique and depends on the people involved, it could help you to see our perspective:

• We have a barrier of respect strong as steel.
  We respect each other, but mostly, we respect our decision areas. Each one leads a department, and although any crucial decision is chosen by joint agreement after discussing the different approaches, each has ownership of each area.
• We are super different people.
  We are super different (yeah, it sounds like a joke because Justin and Nick are also twins, but they are indeed different in many ways), and you can feel it from the right moment you meet us. Diversity of mind and behavior brings other solutions and perspectives to the same issue. And I concluded that it is part of our secret sauce.
• Even with our differences, we share the same strong values.
  About the important, we are all together. We always agreed on fundamental decisions that touched our values. (You can find it here some of them)
• We are stubborn but also always open to changing our minds.
  This is also key. Our meetings usually start with a point of view and arrive at a different conclusion. We are stubborn because growing our company during all these years is an act of resilience and persistence, but we are always open to changing our minds and listening to a different point of view.

Apart from these four things we have in our connection, I’d add some ingredients to this soup we also have, which I recommend to any partner, like Transparent and honest communication, perseverance, and self-critical capacity.

Of course, we also have our bad things, as everybody has, but eleven years together creating this fabulous community is such a significant accomplishment we have to celebrate.

Cheers for many years more together, folks! 🍻