Short & Sweet reviews of our favorite books for entrepreneurs. This weeks review:
NINJA BOOK REVIEW: Partnership or Partnersh*t – You Decide
by PATTY SOFFER
4 out of 5 NINJA STARS
For a partnership to survive, you have to build the partnership “from a very human perspective, and then the business.” In other words, the foundation of a partnership is based on human relationships. If you are about to enter into a partnership, you better build it right!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patty Soffer went from being a top fashion model to opening a high-end retail store. After hiring a manager to run her business, she graduated magna cum laude at age 40 with a degree in journalism and communications. Shortly after, she launched a branding and design firm with a business partner. The firm enjoyed major accounts such as McDonald´s, Marriot, Heineken, and many others – until the company dramatically imploded. She was so devasted by that failed partnership, that she dedicated the next three years of her life to figuring out exactly why it failed. She traveled, studied, read, meditated, rested, taught, listened and cried her way to a massive turning point in her life, which culminated into this book.
1 SENTENCE BOOK SUMMARY
ҬGoing beyond the usual legal, financial, and business strategies, you will learn, step-by-step, how to create the mist important strategy of all Рyour human strategy.
FAVORITE QUOTE
- “Business must be about you becoming aware of yourself first; then your partners, and then the business.”
KEY TAKEAWAYS & QUOTES
- “You and you alone will determine the energy in your partnerships. It’s not about the other person.”
- “Good questions often evoke emotional responses so be careful not to interrogate. Ask, listen, and don’t judge.”
- “You must have constant overcommunication with your partner.”
- “It is imperative that you do not surrender your power through anger and frustration.”
- “Money issues will destroy even the best partnerships.”
- “You must be intensely self-aware about your financial philosophy and then thoroughly and intensely get to know about theirs.”
- “Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”
- “Any business has to be about people first and foremost. Profit follows.”
- “Don’t be pressured into a partnership if it doesn’t suit your personality or business goals.”
- “If you feel you can’t be in business without a partner or this partner in particular, you probably aren’t strong enough to be in business at all.”
- “A partnership is a continuous negotiation between expectations and reality.”
- “Give up having expectations. All they get you is upset. Instead, have defined goals and outcomes”
- “People are either Entrepreneurs, Managers, or Producers. The Entrepreneur is teh visionary who attracts talent, takes all the risk and is the big picture person. You should leave details to the Managers, who like to run the day-to-day operations of a business. Producers are out there creating, inventing, selling, innovating, and influencing.”
OUR NINJA OPINION
While the other partnership books we have reviewed were written by consultants “The Partnership Charter” or academics “Business Partnership Essentials,” this is the first one from an author who was inspired by her own failed partnership! She knows first hand what she’s talking about and in an interesting twist, the book focuses on asking yourself a lot of questions about who you are and what you want from the partnership. A good book to check out!
