Episode Transcript

What’s up, everybody? Welcome back to five minute rants. Welcome back to THE a.m guys.

So today I actually want to talk about loyalty. I want to talk about friendship and partnership, and I want to talk about what makes a great partner, especially in business and in life. And I’m going to start with one of what I believe is the biggest principles and core principles for partnership. And before I even get into that, I’m going to start with a proverb. I know I said I’m going to start with all these different things, but here’s legitimately the beginning of where I’m going to start.

And the proverb is this, better are the wounds of a friend and better to be trusted are the wounds of a friend than the kisses of an enemy. And what it means is this, if you have somebody in your life who is willing to tell you the truth, even though it hurts and is painful in the moment when they’re telling you, that is what you can trust, over somebody who’s just going to sit there and flatter you, and over somebody who is just going to sit and they’ll lie to avoid telling you that you the truth, or lie to avoid inflicting any sort of pain from the truth or from facts.

And those are the type of people you want in your life, I’ve I think it’s so important, especially whether you’re looking for a relationship to get married, you need somebody who’s going to tell you the truth. You have to be able to tell the truth back as well. And then you also, if you’re looking for a partner in business, that’s what you want. You don’t want somebody who’s going to sugar coat things, and you don’t want somebody who’s going to avoid now here’s the kicker about all of this.

What type of person are you? Are you an avoidant person? And at that point, I think it’s really important to see that enemies from that proverb, if you’re really an enemy of somebody, you’ll avoid telling them the truth. If you’re a friend of somebody, you will tell them the truth. And the truth is painful, right? Because when the truth is told to us. It it places a decision in front of us. Do I choose to receive it and then, do I choose to change or do I choose to run away from it?

And so the truth, often times, is really painful. However, at the end of it, there’s normally life and peace. And I’m saying this, because you have to decide who you’re going to be and who you are is who you will attract. And so if you’re dishonest about things, you’re going to attract people that are dishonest. If you’re avoidant, you’re going to attract people that are avoidant. And I think it’s so important to really step back and not just look at this like, hey, what type of partner do I want? I want somebody who tells me the truth. Awesome. Who are you? What type of person are you as well?

My wife and I, when we started our relationship and when we dated forever ago, that was one of the things we talked about, was the truth and telling each other the truth. And we started really at the root of, hey, this is how we’re going to work through life and walk together. And here’s the other thing is, especially when you’re in business, you need facts. You don’t need opinions and you don’t need emotions. You need facts about what’s working, what’s not working. You need to understand the data and what’s moving on. And this is why a lot of people, they talk about like, wow, business is really harsh. Yes, it can be, but a lot of times, business seems hard and feels hard because it’s more factual based, and a lot more of us are emotional based, rather than factually and truthfully based.

And so if you can change your perception, and if you can change where you value having truth with empathy, because that’s really important, and there’s a balance with that versus just emotionalism, you’re going to do so much better in life, and you’re going to do so much better in business. Now, when it comes to choosing partners again, you’ve got to be the person you want to partner with, but then you’re also going to look through that. And here’s the other thing about business, you’re going to spend a lot of time with that partner. If you want a business partner, are you good friends with him? Can you actually spend a lot of time with him? And if you cannot, they’re not going to be a good partner for you either.

So those two things are one of the biggest, I think, points of choosing a partner, right? Because you’re going to go through the whole skill set, you’re going to go through the whole process of vision, strategy, all that stuff, but you’re also need to sit back and look, ‘s like cool. Can I do life with this person? Can I do life with them? And then how are they in terms of really, actually telling the truth, being truthful, being honest, being upfront, and is our relationship built on that?

And I think anything honestly, and this is outside of all this, anything outside of being built on the truth, anything outside of that, it’s going to fail. And there’s no way it’s not going to fail. And if you look back over your life, any instance of anything that was not built on fact or truth, it has crumbled or is in the process of crumbling. And if you are honest with yourself and think about things in your past honestly and openly, you will see where it hasn’t worked and it’s broken.

Anyways, guys, I’ll catch you later. Peace.