Getting a right partner (I)

Quoted from the Avengers Movie, Nick Furry: “There was an idea, called the Avengers Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to fight the battles we never could.”
Even super heroes cannot fight all battles alone. Gathering everyone together is the way forward in fighting bigger battles.
Thus it’s not surprise when you notice many businesses were started by more than one founder.
However, we also observe that many partnerships don’t last long and here are some of the major reasons:-
Different directions. One of the most common reason for separation. This usually happens during the scaling/ expansion stage in which one of the partners may be more aggressive compared to the other partner. Due to the difference in risk appetite, both partners cannot come to an agreement on how their business should be directed, and therefore the partnership ends.
Different management style. All leaders has their own management philosophy. Some believe in the carrot-and-cane, some believe in relationship management. However, when two leaders in the organisation practice conflicting management styles, they will first see the employees starting to separate into different groups and office politics thrive. This will cause the business to collapse.
Different values and believes. This may be due to the personality or exposure of the founders. Some believe that a business must make maximum profit, but some may feel that they wanna fulfill social responsibilities. So when these two come together, discussions will alway end up with an arguement.
Instead of Spending time to manage conflicts between partners, it’s always essential to choose the right partner(s) in a business, perhaps some of these points should be considered: –
One leader. Whether you like it or not, you can’t have two tigers in the same jungle. We need to have one leader that can call the shots; all partners has to agree to this principle. It’s not advisable to have equal shares among partners (especially when you have 2 partners or Co -founders). However, you need a fair and credible leader, one of the criteria (that I can only think of) being trust.
Not nice; not bad; but fair. Many are just too nice to their partners thinking that they should do more to please their partner in order to maintain a good relationship. Well, I’m not against this idea but it will be totally unfair if only one partner is doing it to please the other partner. Partnership is just like a marriage, both parties have the responsibility of making things happen regardless of who has more or less shares in the company.
Nothing is free. This happens often during the expansion stage. The founder may give free shares to new partners as a gesture to welcome them on board. I think this should be stopped. Your partner will be more serious in the business if they have to fork out their money to buy these shares, as compared to free shares which they have nothing to lose. They must feel the pain before they appreciate the gain.
No side business. When you work with partners that have other side businesses or partners that are full time employees in another company, you will notice the commitment level of these partners being very low. If you are the only one that is full time in this business,you will soon have lots of frustration. If your partner cannot give his/her commitment, they better be a shareholder that invests but not co-managing the business.