Entrepreneurship can be a rewarding path to success. A successful entrepreneur can enjoy a luxury lifestyle within a few years of building a profitable business. Famous names such as one of Twitter’s co-founders, Jack Dorsey, have established their wealth through their business involvement. Dorsey leaves Twitter with a personal fortune of $11.8 billion. Interestingly enough, it’s another business, fintech Square, that contributed the most to his current wealth. Yet, the bottom line remains: Entrepreneurship can be one of the most effective paths to build a luxury lifestyle.
However, success can take time and effort. That’s precisely why every entrepreneur needs good friends to help along the way.
Good friends could become good business partners
Finding a friend who shares your thoughts and interests can bring a business dream to life. Indeed, friendship sits behind some of the most famous and successful companies of our day-to-day life. In 2008, three friends, Nathan Blecharczyk, Brian Chesky, and Joe Gebbia, combined their technical and creative design skills to create Airbnb. Another famous friendship that launched a successful business is Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. The friendship of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream founders dates back to their school days. They launched their first store in Vermont in 1978. The rest is history.
In other words, good friends can make good business partners. Preserving business transparency and friendship can be tough with discipline. Partners who take things too lightly often end up seeking a business divorce. Entrepreneurs must work hard on the business and their friendship, ensuring they never compromise one for the other.
Making friends outside your industry for sanity
A good friend understands the challenges and hardships of entrepreneurship. Who’s best placed to understand an entrepreneur if not another entrepreneur? Making friends with other business leaders outside your industry can be a source of support and joy. Many entrepreneurs find their most reliable friends among their peer group. They can share a safe hobby to relax together and discuss their businesses. Talking to another entrepreneur can also help build a deep and genuine bond.
Even a challenging friendship can drive success
Some friendships can be beneficial in love-and-hate relationships. For instance, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have worked both with and against each other since the early 1980s. Their iconic relationship has always attracted the media. However, despite the competition between Microsoft and Apple, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs respected each other’s skills and ideas. Many sources quote their unique relationship as the reason behind the success of both companies. Indeed, Gates and Jobs inspired each other’s creativity, productivity, and sense of innovation. Building a friendship with a competitor can also be a valuable source of inspiration. As Gates and Jobs showed, it can take a lot of effort to make the friendship work. Yet, it makes no doubt that Apple and Microsoft would not be iconic brands if they hadn’t had a worthy friend and competitor in the market.
In conclusion, is another leader friend the path to building a successful business? The answer depends on you. However, entrepreneurs with a luxury lifestyle share one common trait around the world: They have a friend, either a partner, a cheerleader in another industry, or an inspiring competitor.