Me: You know what, your idea totally sucks!
My Partner: Ya? As if your idea was better!
Me: Atleast it didnt involve hanging a rabbit upside down from a helicopter!
My Partner: Oh, so you think that’s mad and not throwing the client down the cliff just to check whether he’s light-weight or heavy-weight???
Me: Hmmm… You’re right. Fine. But I get to select the helicopter.

And that’s just another one of our daily “brainstorming session”! 😀

Ever since I got into this business of building my own start-up, one thing I have read and been told to an umpteen number of times is that – make sure your partner is a mirror image of you. Both of you should think alike in all aspects…. etc etc..

And I couldn’t disagree more!

Okay, I agree to the fact that both the partners should be focused and pretty clear about the vision and mission of the company. They should also be very comfortable working together and not be like long-lost-enemies-who-got-together-to-save-the-company kind of people. Other than the usual ‘needed’ qualities like these, which are pretty obvious from common sense, it would be all the more better for the growth of the company if the partners are ready to get at each others throats during a brain storming session and at the same time enjoy a coffee together after 10 minutes.

Ever heard the saying that always listen to what your enemies say about you, because they’ll always point out your negatives! Similar goes when you have a brain-storming session for ideas. In a start-up, where you don’t have too many brains to come up with too many ideas, arguing over a idea helps a lot. Especially when ideas are needed most in a field like SMM, One person comes up with an idea and the other person comes up with reasons as to why it wouldn’t work out. Then the former tries to find solutions to all the problems the latter person pointed out. And as the discussion goes forward, finally a stage is reached where you either understand the initial idea was pretty stupid or you have an idea in your hand that is completely refined from each and every aspect you could think of. Voila! Success!!

Consider this. Your partner has very similar tastes and frequency pretty same as yours. Whenever a decision is to be taken, no matter how much you try to think out of the box, one would think only the way he has ‘programmed’ his brain to think over the course of his life. Outside-the-box thinking is nothing but thinking differently. And it doesn’t come by ‘deciding’ to think differently. Its a state of mind where you continuously train your brain to think differently in all situations. So, when there exists such a scenario, no matter how much you try, you’ll almost always come up with an expected result (unless there is an external person whom you include in the decision making process). Now, when you have someone with you who is totally, absolutely, completely different than you, look at the positives. You’ll get to see each point from every single point of view possible. What happens in this argumentative process is that knowingly or unknowingly you tend to filter out all the negative aspects involved in the idea. And only when one is able to fully convince the other, will you ‘actually’ reach a  decision. A decision which you can be pretty sure you wouldn’t have to take a second look at.

Obviously, me saying this doesn’t mean that all partners should be like this. I was just arguing against the so-called-myth I have heard and been told to, a lot. And again, this shouldn’t be the ONLY factor based on which you should judge/select your partner. There are a lot many other things which am sure you don’t need a blog post to tell you about. Its all elementary dear boy!

P.S. If you find me inactive in Twitter for over one week, please understand that my partner murdered me for writing this post. After all, this post is dedicated to him. XD

P.P.S. Just so that none of you misunderstand, though our brain-storming sessions are ‘murderous’, I consider myself goddamn blessed to have my best buddy as my work partner too 🙂

Would love to have your views regarding the same. Feel free to drop in your opinions/suggestions below.