Cashing in

We live in a world where value for money comes before almost anything else. You go to the store and you don't think much about how your bargain affects child slaves in Bangladesh or how premium coffee affects traders in Africa. And why would you? We've all got bills to pay and mouths to feed.

However, where business partnerships pillared in friendship are concerned, at what price do our personal relationships suffer when money and friendship mix?

I have been undertaking some work for a friend this year and have found myself wondering this on more than one occasion. 

Having met during a time of our lives where we were pursuing similar academic aspirations supported by the intellectual safety net of post-graduate life, today our paths have very much diverged. Our friendship turned business relationship forced me to query how far I would go to lose in friendship for financial gain. 

Psychologically speaking, where money is involved, so are emotional and professional hurdles. That is the nature of business afterall. The marriage of business and friendship is different however, as it risks destroying an intimacy founded in mutual respect and companionship and which is embedded in a history both personal and kindred.

Regardless, this risk makes sense to many when two or more individuals passions are aligned and talents complimentart of each other. Businesses have thrived for ages in the belief that collaboration of this kinf is an investment of individual niches towards a share of the market. 

Take Ben and Jerry's, a friendship turned icecream empire or the Harley-Davidson brand (athough not a relative!). These successes demonstrate the prospect when shared visions are streamlined towards the same objective of turning profit, success and money. 

But then there's the not so social network, as depicted by Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg whose budding college relationship turned sour because one person didn't hold up their side of the bargain: actually doing the work. 

There is also the Beatles shimozzle whose infamous law suits filed against their own band members, followed John Lennon's pitying of Paul Mcarney, depicting a torrid situation in which business founded in friendship can be a poisonous affair. (Maybe they shoild have chsnfed their name to the Snakes or Spiders.)

As for my experience, my relationship never reached anywhere near the levels of toxicity of cult names. I definitely feared the worst when I endeavored to have a difficult conversation about money with a person whose work and ideas I valued more than dollars. Frankly, the fear of losing respect for that person encouraged me to rectify the matter by voucing to my colleague and myself that no matter how much money I was involved, the outcome, and overall success of the project, was not worth losing a relationship over. 

Admittedly, when millions of dollars are invested in a future which is intertwined with another petson, it's no wonder the world of mixing business and pleasure is a brave new world requiring psychological risk taking to unprecedented heights, even for the most treasured friendships.