In January two of our 6 partners announced their desire to buy the
remaining partners out of a business we had built together over the
last eight years.  The business was successful by any measurement,
which made for a long and drawn out negotiation.  Today that all came
to a fruitful end.  We signed the papers, and the two buyers left the
building proud owners of a great business.

As we returned to our office, one of the partners who (like me) had
just sold his shares commented, “Today we witnessed a miracle.  We came
together eight years ago as friends.  We built a successful business. 
And today we parted company in a way where all of us are still
friends.”  While that may not be a miracle on the order of parting the
Red Sea or raising the dead, it is something very rare indeed in
today’s world.

Of course I didn’t get everything I wanted in the negotiation —
neither did anyone else.  We all arrived at an outcome we could live
with.  I think that’s the way it is in win-win negotiations.  If you
got everything you wanted, the person on the other end didn’t — plain
and simple.  If they didn’t, they leave the negotiation with a bad
taste in their mouth for the whole thing (including a bad taste for
you.)  Some would say I should have fought for more.  But at the end of
the day it isn’t all about money.  It’s about reputation.  It’s about
integrity.  It’s about doing the right thing (instead of the best
thing.)    It’s about taking the long view.  It’s about holding your
head high wherever you go.  It’s about knowing you are a person who
makes the world a better place, not someone who’s in it for himself. 
Those things are so much more important to me in the long run than
money, I can’t even put it into words.

Yes, I would have liked to have gotten more.  But to do so, I would
have had to sacrifice who I am.  And it’s not like I can’t go out and
make more.  I’m able bodied, experienced, and willing to get in and
make things happen.  I can make up what I gave away in short order. 
Had I traded my integrity and values for money, I would have spent the
rest of my life trying to regain what was lost.  Not a very good trade
to my way of thinking.

Anyway, I guess this is a message of hope.  It is possible to split
the sheets and remain friends.  All that’s necessary are partners on
both sides of the issue willing to seek the common good, and committed
to not taking unfair or undue advantage of anyone else.  I was blessed
with that type of partners.    How are your partners?