Bill Gates had Paul Allen; Steve Jobs had Steve Wozniak; Warren Buffet had Charlie Munger. Whoever you are – be you the smartest and shrewdest investor in the world, or just an entrepreneur starting out, it always helps to have extra hand.

Being someone who is trying to start up a business venture of my own, I personally feel that one of the most crucial things that you must have to make your venture work is at the very least a partner that shares your enthusiasm, values and priorities. It’s very easy to get excited about a certain project after talking it through with your best buddies over supper, but if you have ever tried to implement such an idea, you will find that your best friends aren’t always your best business partners.

Here are just some factors that I have found important when choosing a business partner to carry out that special business plan you just can’t ignore.

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (sitting) in Jobs’ garage in 1975

Enthusiasm

If you have to work with a partner that does not share the same enthusiasm and commitment to making your business plan a success, how do you think that you are going to feel? On one hand you will be raving on and on about how clever your idea is and you will have your partner be a wet blanket during your discussions, feeling disinterested and not actively contributing to the discussion. A less than interested partner would also be an energy vampire that soaks up your energy during the discussion as you find yourself having to spend extra effort getting him to get on the same page you are, making your efforts less efficient.

Being an entrepreneur who is just starting out also means that you have like a million things to do and to attend to. Having even part of your energy soaked up by your very own associates just sounds like a bad idea to me. However, if you have a partner who is as enthusiastic about your special project as you are, things will be radically different! The hours and hours of work will fly by because working on your venture will be just so much more fun with an equally enthusiastic partner! Being full of energy and enthusiasm makes working so much more of a joy, which of course definitely increases your chances of success.

Having an enthusiastic partner is also important simply because energy is contagious! Entrepreneurship is definitely hard work and there are bound to be times when you just feel like giving up. Having an enthusiastic and positive partner is going to help you out of those times and keep you moving right on track. Just be sure that you be that source of energy and strength for your partner when he/she needs that extra push too!

Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger - The Unshakable Duo of Berkshire Hathaway

Values

Working with a partner that does not share the same core values as you do is also another source of pain. When your values are not in sync with your partner’s, what happen is that more likely than not, the two of you are going to spend time arguing over how things should be done and why they should be done. Values are important because they are the underlying principle that guide our actions in life – and when they are out of sync in a business context, it could be the root cause of the breaking down of a business relationship.

For instance, a business relationship could be seriously strained if one partner sees nothing wrong with bribing officials to secure a project while the other cannot tolerate it. When personal and ethical values do not match, the partners would find it difficult to make decisions without consulting the other, making the whole process of decision making even more time and energy consuming. However, when the partners involved are very clear about each other’s values and opinions concerning the running of the business, things run smoother and more congruently.

One lesson to learn here is that it is important to take time to know your business partner before creating a business relationship. Values are intangible, invisible and take us time to understand but are all so important.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen (1981)

Priorities

Finally, both you and your partner should have perfectly aligned goals and priorities when it comes to business.

Very often close friends come together to start a business, but fail and even strain their relationship simply because they do not have the same priorities when it comes to their joint venture – one side may see it as just something to do to pass the time, while the other may see it as something he truly wants to invest his life in. And when it comes to entrepreneurship, to be successful, we really need partners that can go all out with us. Would Microsoft be the multi-billion powerhouse that it now is if Paul Allen didn’t go all out with Bill Gates when they were starting out? It would definitely be way harder for Gates to be where he is today if that were the case, being without a partner that he could really work with.

When such a disparity is present, conflict will definitely arise as one party claims that there is too much to do while the other claims that the business is doing too little! This will inevitably lead to frustration, pain and even the possibility of the dissolution of the friendship should the conflict not be handled well.

One thing I believe that we can learn from this is that it is important that we be transparent with our business partners concerning our priorities from day one. There’s just no point trying to hide our true intentions where this is concerned as lying would only result in frustration and heartache for the both of you. This is definitely a situation where I feel that honesty is really the best policy.

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No man is an island, and we often find ourselves needing to work with like minded people to make our grandiose plans  come to fruition.

Look for people who want to achieve the same goals as you do, but also keep in mind that they should be more than that – they should also share your enthusiasm, values and priorities. It may seem like a difficult task but when you find those partners you will find that they will motivate you, inspire you, and push you along the path you need to tread in times when you just feel like giving up so much.

And I really believe that it would make all the difference.

What do you think a millionaire looks like?

Why don’t we just try this exercise for just a minute – close your eyes and see the richest millionaire in your mind’s eye. See the clothes that he has on, the car he drives and the house he lives in.

What did you see?

Did you see a person dressed in the most expensive, haute couture? Did you see a fast, expensive luxury car? Did you see an enormous estate spanning acres and acres of prime land?

Sharp suit and fast car?

That’s exactly what most people see. And what people see and envision is exactly what they do. That is exactly why many people today are not really wealthy.

We’ve been brainwashed by the media from a young age to believe that that’s just how a millionaire lives – he drives a fast sports car, dines at the best restaurants, flies first class and spends weekends relaxing on his luxury yacht with his supermodel trophy wife – and we grow up aspiring to be just like him.

We learn to spend, spend and spend, learning to buy the best and most expensive things in life but we ignore the less glamorous habits of real life, self made millionaires like living within our means, investing prudently and hard work.

And since we model the habits of these imaginary millionaires as portrayed by the media, and not the real life, wealth accumulating habits of real millionaires, is it any wonder that most of us are not rich and wealthy?

I too, am extremely guilty of this.

I always envied the kids whose parents bought them toy after toy after toy at Toys-R-Us. While my parents really showered my brothers and I with truly unconditional love and provided everything necessary for us, one thing they never really liked doing was spoiling us with the flashy, expensive toys from the toyshop.

I can remember walking up and down the aisles of the toyshop, picking up each Transformers action figure and reading the back label, imagining myself playing with it, having it transform and fighting for a great war in battlefield Home. But I never did ask my parents to get them for me as I was just dead certain that they’ll just say no. So I spent hours just looking and imagining myself with the many toys and action figures I knew I’ll never play with, telling myself that I will some day make up for it.

Fast forward a decade. I was studying away from home in Singapore now. I have my own money, my own personal budget to spend on whatever I so desire. Without my parents to curb my spending, I tried to live the ‘rich’ life – I spent good money on the best looking things with little regard to how much I spent! Rebelling against my upbringing in a way, I spent and spent and spent, spending quite a bit more than the average Malaysian scholar.

I was young, foolish, and I didn’t understand what it meant to save, invest and minimize my expenses to work towards financial freedom.

But now I understand that most self made millionaires don’t live their lives with meaningless spending because they, above all others understand the merits of living within their means and investing their money so that their money works for them.

He, above all people, understands that fact.

So I guess that I should take some time out to talk about some real-life millionaire (also billionaire) habits that we can all practice become one someday.

Millionaires know the time-value of their money

One reason that the wealthy don’t simply spend their money on the things that they don’t need is because that they understand that if they invested that money instead, they would end up even richer and wealthier, which would make them happier than the immediate short-term gratification spending that money would have brought.

Warren Buffett is famous for once refusing to buy his wife Susie a new car because the $40,000 cost of the car invested with his company over just 5 years would about to nearly $150,000, which is in his opinion, way too much to spend on a car!

One key difference between the self-made millionaires and the working class who are one step away from being broke is this – the rich can deal with delaying immediate gratification and invest their money for greater returns! They put off buying things they don’t need to invest that money wisely so that their money works for them to generate even more money.

If we can model Warren Buffett’s behaviour and see the future value of the money we hold with us, I’m quite sure we would really spend much less and invest much more!

Millionaires work towards financial freedom

Financial freedom is the state where one is free to not work and still have enough money to survive comfortably.

Just how is that possible to have an income when we don’t work?

It’s definitely possible when the passive income you receive is greater than your expenses.

Passive income is defined as the income we receive even though we don’t actively work to receive it. Such income flows into our pockets regardless of whatever we do. Examples of sources of passive income would be rental payments we receive from leasing out properties we own, royalties from the sales of our intellectual property and even monthly dividends from the shares that one owns.

So when one’s passive income is greater that one’s expenses, that person would no longer have to work! That person would then be financially free, and that person spent working can be better used to work on other things that he or she deems more meaningful than working!

That’s why the financially intelligent work towards minimizing their expenses whilst working to increase their passive income – they’re working to that fabled financial freedom that so many of us seek, but so rarely attain.

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Now that I am older and wiser, I can see just why my parents have always taught me to spend wisely and carefully – it’s one crucial step towards achieving that millionaire dream I always had.

Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.

- Warren Buffett

I’m a little behind, but I’ll break those chains. Just you wait.