Friends Forever

May 2010

by Hardy Hasenfuss

Cut from the same cloth:

Bill (68) and John (69) were born one week apart— they went to the same college and pharmacy school. Both became pharmacists, and they worked together for the same employer for 10 years. They each got married the same year (also one week apart) and they both have five children.

Why wouldn’t they partner, with this much in common?

They did, and it worked VERY WELL!

Business snapshot:

Bill and John opened their first pharmacy in 1972, and added a few more until they had 11 stores with 300 employees. 21 years later, the industry had become very competitive and challenging to manage, with a few very large chains dominating the market place. They sold the business and retired.

The business partnership:

That first pharmacy was 50 miles from their homes, so they each worked alternate days, seven days a week. To stay on top of business matters, they talked to each other every night.

Despite the long hours, Bill and John enjoyed a fair amount of family time by taking alternate days at the office. Their work time averaged 45 hours a week, and soon they instituted the same schedule for pharmacists in all of their stores. When the business turned into a multi-location business, they began working on the same day and commuting together.

Bill claims he knew nothing about management and learned on the job. He acted as the business manager, while John was out in the field visiting the pharmacies.

There were never disagreements over engagement or compensation: the topic never came up. They never employed or needed a mediator. Trusting each other implicitly, Bill and John communicated well, settling differences well and quickly.

Bill says, “I’ll never be this lucky again. Or a second time around.”

Some of their personal rules for the partnership:

  • Keep your wife out of the business. She can only see your side of the story and cannot be objective.
  • Keep your children out of the business.
  • No drug store business discussed at home. (two of their five sons are pharmacists, and they don’t discuss pharmacy business at home either)
  • Start and end as friends. (We’re still friends after these many years)
  • Having fun at what we’re doing.
  • And when you’re doing well with consistent success, you don’t ever look for any faults or arguments.

The ingredients for success in this partnership:

  • Be a friend, and treat the other as a real friend. Do all the things true friends do, no matter how long you’ve known each other.
  • Trust yourself and the other person.
  • Treat everyone, especially your employees and customers, the way you want to be treated.
  • Collaborate, never compete with your partner(s), even though that’s what we’ve all been trained to do our entire life.
  • Find balance in your life, and seek to have fun!
  • Practice all of the “personal rules” mentioned above.

Can these success principles be practiced as easily by two partners who have not known each other for very long?  YES, and I can show you how.

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