Competition in Business: Does Mixing Business With Friends Work?

I raise my shoulders! It’s Q & A Tuesday! Bada bing!

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Q: Today’s question comes from Diane and Diane writes… (Laughter) Today’s question comes Diane and she writes: “I was wondering how to mix friendship with business?” Well, that’s easy to do! You can either do friendness or bizship. Just kidding! Moving on. 

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“I’m in the entertainment industry, live caricature and my teacher is now my agent, a colleague, and a friend. But since I want to expand my business and offered different and up-level services, I’m now a competitor and I think it will affect our friendship. How can I expand my business and be successful without hurting anyone?”

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A: Oooh, what a juicy question, girl! Juicy, juicy, juicy! Hmm! The first thing that I want to talk about is that your question reveals that your thinking is coming from a dark and scary place.

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(Woo…woo….woo….woo…)

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A place of limitation and lack. It’s as though you have more business, there’s less business for someone else. Now we all have this kind of thinking from time to time but that does not mean it’s true. Riddle me this: what if more success for you means more success also for your colleague-agent-teacher-friend? What if a rising tide really does lift all ships? Here’s the deal, before we talk about anything else, you need to re-adjust your thinking. You need to really drop that lack and scarcity mentality like it’s hot because it’s not hot!

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There is plenty of business and success to go around for all. I want to share a quote with you from Marian Williamson’s, A Return to Love, one of my favorite books and it’s a Tweetable!

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“There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.”

Here’s the bottom line, your success can never hurt anyone around you. All it can do is help and inspire others. The truth is the more successful you are, the better you reflect on your colleague-agent-teacher-friend. And honestly, the best way to show her some support is to thank her for helping you to get where you are today. Remember, either your colleague-agent-teacher-friend is going to be wildly happy for your success or she’s going to be bitter and jealous.

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Either way you’ll likely inspire her to up her game but remember however she reacts is completely her choice. If I were you, Ms. Diane, I would be focusing on building your business. Then you can take all the lessons that you learned and you can share it with your teacher and your friends, and anyone else in your industry; and, help lift them up. 

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Diane that was my A to you Q! Thank you so much for asking. If you’ve got experience or stories about competing with friends or teachers in your industry or leave me a comment below and let me know about it!

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Bada bing!

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