My best friend writes back...

...from my best friend to me... (4 days after my letter to him)

My Dear Anil

I have gone thru your thoughts twice and then once again and then once again. The reason is not that I could not understand but I was enjoying it and feeling proud of having u as my only friend. I was also feeling jealous as I may not be able to write like this and I was also feeling pity on the educational qualifications India bestows upon us, which would not make us capable of writing such beautiful things. I am not only referring to the English and rhythm in the thoughts but also to the clarity of thoughts and the ease in which it was written. I congratulate u on creating such as marvelous piece of art.

Now, dear Anil, I come across many partnership proposals in my professional routine and I witness the situations from entering into partnership like marriage; achieving the common goals of wealth creation and living the life happily better than once own individual capabilities; combining the resources and multiplying the effect; overcoming each others weakness; complementing the each ones strengths; mixing enjoyment and entertainment with the business and have also witnessed disasters, which are even worst than my words can communicate.

My professional analysis of factors for successful or worst situations are more practical than emotional, which I can enumerate as under in the order of their efficacy : -

1 Transparency in disclosures and representations before entering in to partnership
2 Utmost transparency and sharing of information during operations, which include recording of transactions and joint decisions
3 Contribution of each partner to the business, which should be maintained parallel to the rewards in the long run.
4 The Ego should be made out of bound and write suggestion and commercial proposition should be accepted, irrespective of the source.
5 A review of situation at regular intervals, specially for discussing the issues related to partnership before they become sore and take over one's rational thinking brain.
6. Sacrifice for the other partner. A sale is never good unless it is a good buy for other person

There are many other factors, which are not surfacing in my mind at present. The most important is that we both will never like to loose the friendship. We have come up to a level in the life, where money is the second priority ( I am intentionally not writing last priority, because that would have been false)

Anil, let me share one thing with u, that while performing my professional and family duties day and night I have not lost any friend but I have left with only one friend i.e. you

If we do some business together that would be pooling of resources, which are complementing to each other. I have some strengths and u have some strengths and all taken jointly would create some thing bigger. That might even improve the quality of life we are leading.

I would look forward to have u with us and spend some time together. I have take some leave from my work and would spend some time in isolation

Love you


Anil C.A.

A letter to my best friend...if I shall do business or not?

…Sorry if you find me very emotional but this is something I must share with you EXACTLY the way and exactly using the words in which I feel about it…Please read and comment with open mind…

Ahead of getting into the discussions of ‘business alliance/partnership/joint venture’ here are some thoughts – Please write your own thoughts as to what do you think ???

It is said that “Business and friendship can be a very volatile combination if you're not careful” – How are we both going to make it happen as “Real Deal in business and friendship”….
Anil, Ideally, WHEN TRUE FRIENDS DO BUSINESS, all the natural laws of negotiation are suspended. The gladiators lay down their swords, and water flows uphill. The buyer demands to pay more, and the seller even insists on taking less! Are we both capable enough to call a spade a spade when doing business keeping friendship in the deep freezer and see it pouring in the glasses as hot scotch in the evening party?
Anil, you and I know it well that the real world instructs us differently: “Friendship is better for business than business is for friendship. Valued relationships will often explode or dissolve when business deals get rocky.” Do we have guts to make our business better for friendship and do we know paths walking on which our relationship will only get better. Do we know the issues upfront which we can identify and deal with carefully so that our friendship never explodes?
At best, it's a scenario that promotes unrealistic expectations and hurtful miscommunication. For one thing, odds are you're more likely to have a spat with a friend you're making a business deal with than one you're not. There are simply more opportunities for you and your friend to get your signals crossed. How can we beat this odd? How differently can we deal with such issue than those who lost their friendships for the sake of business or money?
And who hasn't been astonished by how differently some friends act when doing business? You think you know someone well, but suddenly; he or she morphs into the insanely competitive or disgustingly docile. But actually, it's a deeper dilemma. Do we both have better choices to solve those deeper dilemmas?
In life, the friendship is important in and of itself. But in deal-making, the relationship takes a back seat to business. So experienced deal-makers are not unduly ruffled by greedy, grabby, pushy, evasive, high-handed, disingenuous and/or manipulative opponents. Hey, it's just business right? "Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent," as Shakespeare wrote. In reality, however, we would never expect true friends to treat us this way. Should they dare, then business becomes all too personal. Can we dare??
Anil, the only ROSE without thorn is friendship and you are a rose which I would never want to part with and I repeat “there is no amount of money with which I will trade this rose”.