Character before Gifting, Abilities, And Opportunities

Recently I was given a great opportunity to partner with a local company. They are similar to the AOR (Agent of Record) or gateway to television advertising for a large part of the San Francisco Bay Area for a smaller cable network. This company is a multi-million dollar a year company.

The feeling of them wanting to partner with me was great. I could offer them services they didn’t have, and they me.

Sadly however, the longer I thought about it, the more I realized how I was rushing into it way too quickly. With decisions that will affect your business for years to come, it’s not something you ever want to rush into.

See, after just three short 1 hour meetings I was wanting to partner with a company I knew not much about. While they had tremendous opportunities for me, abilities that I could add to my company, and loads of other perks, I realized I knew nothing of their actual character.

Whenever you enter into a business partnership or even a relationship, the thing that is more important than talent, ability, gifting, etc is their character. Because when the times are rough, character is the thing that will keep the person going. When it comes to making hard choices, character is the thing that will make the person pick the right (or wrong) choice.

So often however, we focus on the persons ability first and later on examine their character.

This is much less affiliate related as it is business related but running an affiliate business is still a business. So, hopefully that’ll help some people out there.