Blut ist dicker als Wasser*

Tu sangre familiar vale más que una gran cantidad de amistades** 

As already mentioned in the previous post, I did go down the treacherous path of getting married at the business altar with “my friends.” This experience was and still is my path to winning the Oscar for Best Screenplay due to the look of astonishment, confusion, shock and laughter that I get in one go when explaining to others how quickly and why the milk turned sour with “my friends.” Without losing the grip on my future Oscar, here are a few tidbits from my time being locked up with “my friends” or should I say warnings to up and coming entrepreneurs wanting to go into business with their “friends:”

1. If your friend sees themselves as the next “Julius Caesar,” leave the knife in the kitchen but think twice before signing on the dotted line.
2.  If your friend has the number of the local shop selling clothes for strippers on speed dial, think wisely about whether or not opening a language school is the right venture.
3.  If your friends have a tendency for fish and rubber, maybe you should be thinking about opening a restaurant specializing in fish and where the dress code is latex rubber…

All in all think long and extremely hard when deciding to join hands with your friends as the cut can be very painful when and if it occurs. To avoid getting your hands cut off or ironically describing your former business partners as “friends,” consider going down the altar with your family or receiving support from them. As in the end, regardless of how well you know and trust your friend, once you have signed on the dotted line, the seven deadly sins will come into play in every possible shape and size and if your family does not model themselves on the Ewing family from Dallas, you will be in safer hands. 


If they had no problem in cleaning up your “sh**” when you were a little monster, they will most probably have no problem in cleaning up your "sh**” when you are a grown up monster!

   

Lesson 4:  Business and pleasure doesn’t mix when dealing with friends.  




* ( A German Proverb: Blood is thicker than water).


** ( A Spanish Proverb: An ounce of blood is worth more than a pound of friendship).

A Prenuptial Agreement for Business Partners

“A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” (Misreporting of an actual quote from Samuel Goldwyn)

As you must have realized from Why Now, I did not turn my dream into reality in the land of “Bunga Bunga Parties” but instead in the land of the “Iron Frau.”

It would take me another few years of still attempting to be a lawyer on Law & Order and working in language schools where the bulk of the teachers were and are budding thespians. A note to all directors out there, as well as advertising in drama schools for your lead, you should also try out all the language schools too: The response will most probably be higher from the language schools…

I then made the mistake of getting pregnant and married too soon and not even signing a pre nuptial agreement with my business partners. Yes, if you enter into a business with other people, you are more or less entering into a sexless marriage with a screaming baby at your feet. The screaming baby of course is the business, itself.  Just like anybody in love, I was completely blind to the misgivings of my business partners and regardless of my experience as a wannabe lawyer; I ignored the blatant gaps in the company contract which were to be an extremely expensive and painful mistake on my part once the divorce proceedings began.  A key note to all future entrepreneurs out there who decide to go into business with other people, regardless of how small the business is and how much you trust and know your beloved partner, have an extremely detailed section on the consequences of separation: i.e. a prenuptial agreement. It avoids the hassle and loss of hair as to who will end up getting the dictionary.  Yes, it can get that pedantic.

Lesson 3: Protect yourself, before going down the business altar.