A role to play

“The dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists, well, without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.” – Modern Family

Gary is the dreamer and I am the realist. We used to treat this as an obstacle. I think of him as a risk taker because he grabs any opportunity, even those not knocking at his door. He looks at me, on the other hand, as control freak who always sees risks and ensures that it could be managed properly else we should not invest at all. So imagine our conversations which usually end up in an argument.

Needing to “grow up” for the business’ sake, we did a few changes that we think worked for us:

1. Acceptance is the first step. We come to realize and accept that we have differences, to the extreme that is, and we can’t force each other to change.

2. We talked as matured business partners. We agreed to talk about things first. I tell him how I feel about a “prospective” client or investment but I gave him the authority to decide whether to pursue or not. I realized that at the end of the day it’s still his responsibility to provide for the family.

3. We read informative books on business and money.

I learned that net income (gross income – expenses) should be divided into the following; savings, investment account, educational acct, entertainment/leisure acct and charity. Where the investment account should only be used when there are “opportunities” for investment. In this way, you’ll have money to “play” without sacrificing your savings. Education on the other hand is for trainings, seminars or even books that will help you grow as a professional or businessman. (In our case I just have one account for Investment and Education). Entertainment/Leisure account is for anything that will make you feel “rich”. I highly suggest that once in a while you treat your family in an expensive restaurant, travel, shop for expensive jewelry or anything that will make you realize how good it is to have money. This will make you strategize on how to make more money. Those who say that money is not important doesn’t have money. The charity account is obvious, just have an account where you can pull out funds when there’s someone in need.

While Gary learned that one way of increasing net worth is through Simplification. Simply put, we should not allow ourselves to have an expensive lifestyle.

Among others…

4. Finally, we realized that being different is actually an advantage to us as business partners because each of us has a role to play. He sets the vision while I prepare the road, something to that effect.