If you Want to Finish Strong, Go Together.
That was the theme of the TED Talk that Tim and I delivered at the Advocis National AGM & Symposium held in Saskatoon, SK. Our version was a slightly different take on the African Proverb, “If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
The Strategies for Success conference was an energetic fast-paced day of TED Talks. Tim and I were asked to speak about “Successfully Working with your Life Partner”.
It’s a common question we both hear: “How can you work with your spouse?!” This is usually followed by a parade of reasons and declarations why that individual couldn’t (or wouldn’t) work with their spouse.
As we shared in our TED Talk, “us” working together was always part of the plan. We didn’t go into business together because of convenience or lifestyle. Nor would you marry someone for those reasons – I hope not!
The reality is for any business, the odds are against you. We’ve all heard these statistics before….
- In first 10 years of business, 96% will Fail
- 70% of second-generation business will Fail
- Almost 40% of all marriages end in Divorce
In 2020, Sutton Financial Group will celebrate 30 years in business – with a successful transition to the second-generation. Tim and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage. We are beating the odds and we are still smiling!
In our 18-minute TED Talk, we shared our belief that there are two critical skills to learn and develop to successfully work with your life partner or ANY partner in business.
If you want to hear more about the two critical skills, we’ll share the TED Talk video when it’s released. What I will share, is our belief that the foundation to any strong partnership is common core values and equality. Our belief in partnership equality usually raises eyebrows. In our industry, it’s not the norm. But, do you remember the statistics of business failure?
Mark Twain said, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect”.
We don’t want to be among the majority in which businesses fail.
There are four of us in our partnership (Tim & Andrea, Jay Stark and Stuart Sutton) and we are equal owners. We believe any “tip of the scale” would not only put things off balance but would put pressure on the partnership. If it’s un-equal, the focus would become the inequality versus our focus on the greater goal, our vision, our mission and Finishing Strong.
As partners we have an abundance mentality NOT a scarcity mentality. Our pieces of the pie are equal and together we are making the pie bigger versus worrying about taking a slice from each other. It’s that simple.
To achieve authentic success you can’t be successful in one area of our life and not the other.
You can’t have success professionally and sacrifice personally. If the business succeeds and our marriage doesn’t, that is not authentic success. We want to Finish Strong and we’ll do this by Going Together.
