We had better read prospective business partners well! Partners are daytime spouses, and as with marriage partners, the wrong choice can lead to chronic unhappiness, interpersonal disaster, or major money loss. Partnering comes in many flavors, from professional partnerships (e.g. in a group practice) to the people we hire for our intimate professional tasks, such as our doctors, lawyers, accountants, brokers, and so forth. Partners can help us handle situations well, be mainstays of our professional and economic lives, or leave us unsatisfied or even destroyed.

Coming into an ongoing partnership, most often we let prospective partners find out everything about us, but we don't do the same with them. We fail because we are too anxious or busy. Later, when we find out that they are lax or domineering or crooked, or just plain “not our kind of people” we can choose between a difficult professional divorce or living with teeth-grinding frustration five days a week. Some choice.

It is far better to change the tone of initial negotiations to one in which it's clear that everyone will be looking for a “true fit”, and will openly profile each other, whether it be partners, employers, employees, or any other kinds of professional association. If professional people have a problem with such an idea in this day and age, be careful!