I am thrilled that we can build a friendship on business! So much so that I just blogged about this whole thing.

I love that quote!!! I pulled it out of the JD Rockefeller biography, and it was said by Rockefeller’s business partner in Standard Oil and lifelong friend Henry Flagler, “A friendship built on business is far superior to a business built on friendship.”

The former being starting a business with business minded people, and the latter being starting a business with family or close friends simply because you get along – and not because you both are passionate about the business (having done the latter version of a partnership for the last 2.5 years and closing it out now with negative profit-at least I can write it off haha- I can definitely say that the former method of business is already yielding amazing results!!)

The key is that long-term friendships (whats a marriage without friendship?) are more-so built on common values and less on common interests – Unbeknownst to many is that values cause what you become interested in, so if someone can figure out the qualitative things they value in life, that will help them identify those same qualities in others, and the probability of friendship for the long-haul increases greatly when you surround yourself with people with similar values!

For instance.. if you meet someone at yoga, you both will bond over the fact that you both are doing yoga, but the more important factor is the reason that brought both you and this other individual into the yoga studio in the first place – The value! They could be doing yoga for the sake of vanity, or its popularity, whereas you could be doing it for health and vitality. Once Yoga is over, you may not enjoy this person because of where their values lead them next.