Principles for Partnership

You are listening to Blessed and Ball Stop, presented by Anchored Media. An entrepreneurship podcast for Christians all about how to make God the CEO of your business. Get ready to be inspired, challenged, but well-equipped to live and build your destiny his way.

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the blessed embossed podcast. This is another installment of the Bible on business series. This is actually the last installment of this year for the Bible on business series. As you guys know, we are going to be taking a break for December podcast break. I just want to

relax some, rust my voice, rust my brain, really just spend time with the Lord, spend time with my family and just see what happens after that. So I don't know what content is going to come in January. I'm looking forward to sitting with God about year eight for the podcast because, I mean, it's just amazing that this show is going on.

Eight years. That's a very long time. And I'm looking forward to just sitting with the Lord to see what he has for this platform for year eight. I haven't sat with him yet and saw his guidance on what year eight looks like for blessed and bossed up. So I'm looking forward to doing that and being still and receiving and then coming back at the top of the year to let you guys know the result of that. So

Our last installment for this year of the Bible on Business Series, I hope that you guys have enjoyed it. I have enjoyed it. I mean, the purpose of this series is for us to really internalize and understand that the Bible has so much for our businesses and not just how the Lord wants to bless us and make us successful and great.

but the operations, the mindset, the leadership, how we should serve our customers marketing. There's just so much here in the text. And I personally have explored learning all of what the Bible has to say about business and communicating that here on this show. So I pray that it has also blessed you. The title of today's episode is principles for partnership. In the scripture, we're going to be diving into is Genesis 13, seven through 11.

We talk a lot on the show about entrepreneurship from the capacity of either a single CEO or a solo, but someone who has generally started and are growing their businesses solo. But today I want us to talk about partnerships because whether you have a co-founder or you're working with somebody via joint venture or whatever the case may be at some point in your entrepreneurship journey, you're going to collaborate, you're going to partner with people.

And when I came across this text, I was like, man, where was this when I first started nine years ago in entrepreneurship? Because I have explored and grown in business both singularly as well as via partnerships. My first business I started was a youth program in 2015. And I started that business with a partner.

that partnership ended up disintegrating. And then I continued to grow as a solo entrepreneur. The podcast, I started it off with partners, plural. And then over time, as you guys know, as we rebraded, it became blessed and bossed up. I continued the podcast by myself, anchored media. I started anchored media by myself and I'm grown it by myself, but anchored media studios is a partnership. I own the studio and the business with my aunt. We have a partnership where a family owned business.

The society was started as a membership community to support this podcast. I started it on my own, but over the years I've expanded to now having partners. So in my personal entrepreneurship journey, I have experienced how valuable partnerships are.

And I also have experienced how detrimental they can be. And so I'm excited for us to explore this text because many of you, you may be in a space where it's you and a co-founder, maybe you and a friend, you and a relative, you're starting this business together and you need some wisdom or navigating this journey.

Maybe you're looking for a co-founder, maybe you're somebody who has skills in one particular area, but you're looking for somebody else with a different set of skills to partner with you to help bring this business to fruition. Maybe you're in a space where you need strategic partnerships in order for your business to scale. So whatever situation or space of business you find yourself in is really important for us to extract this wisdom from the text.

Before we get there, though, let's just discuss partnerships and what that means for a business. If you're somebody where you may be in a space where you're exploring if partnerships may be the right thing for you, then check this out. In research, I found that in the United States, partnerships filed over 4 million returns for the tax year 2021, marking a 4.4% increase from the previous year. These returns represented more than 30.6 million partners.

in 8.4% rise from 2020. So what this means is that there's an increase of businesses that are being formed as partnerships. This can be very beneficial and if I'm just guessing, I will say this is probably because

When you have a partner, a lot of times you share the liability, you share the cost. And it's expensive out here right now. And by you having a partner, it allows you to cut down some of your upfront calls. I know for me, when we started Ingrid Media Studios, there was a lot of upfront calls. We purchased the building. So we had to

paying the down payment and closing costs. We had to renovate the building. So it was a lot of money that was being front-side before we could even open the business. And so having a business partner helped me tremendously because that would have easily been a six figure check just for me. And it wouldn't have happened. I even went a lot. It would not have happened if it would have felt solely on me. So there's a lot of benefit to partnerships.

There are some successes and challenges that come from partnerships. So, studies show that businesses with two founders were found to be 19% less likely to scale prematurely and had a 30% higher chance of successful exit. And so, an exit means like an IPO if the company goes public or an acquisition, meaning selling.

the company compared to solo founded companies. So when you have that other person is working with you, you have somebody to bounce ideas off of, you have somebody that you're accountable to and vice versa. And you make less mistakes where there are two people dedicated to growing a business forward. And again, I've seen this in my own partnerships.

to where I'm able to collaborate and work with my partners to come up with the best solution for whatever endeavor that we're doing versus me having to figure out and do everything on our own. So if you're in a position where you're contemplating partnership, there are a lot of advantages.

And to be fair, there are also a lot of risks and disadvantages as well. There's a study that indicated that 65% of startups fail due to conflicts between founders, highlighting the importance of choosing compatible partners and establishing clear agreements. And we're going to get to that a little bit later in the episode. So when you have a conflict with your partner, that can just impede business growth significantly.

We talked about how those upfront costs can be cut in half and how that's a benefit, but you also cutting in profits and, you know, when you're fronting the bill, you also get the full return. But when you're splitting it, you're also splitting those profits. And so that can lead to a lot of issues. We know money is going to cause conflict in any relationship. And so that can happen in partnerships as well.

As I continue to do research, I didn't even realize many of the most popular companies that we all know and use and love today started off as partnerships. Amazon, for example, so Amazon was founded by Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos, who was his ex-wife. They both founded Amazon. Jeff was the one that took on that public leadership role. So that's why we all know his name, but his wife, she played

a critical part in their early development, too. And if you're familiar, when they got a divorce, she got a huge payout. And I believe a lot of that was because of her partnership and her contribution to the company early on.

Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Again, we all know Bill Gates. I don't know how many of us are familiar with Paul Allen. They both work together to build Microsoft into one of the world's most successful tech companies.

PayPal, many of us are familiar with PayPal. I use PayPal for my business and personally, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are PayPal founders. I had no clue that Elon Musk founded PayPal, but they were part of this group of early executives and they worked together to make it a success. But like many of the other partnerships,

that I have mentioned so far, their different leadership styles and their different visions ultimately led to them splitting. And we all know Elon Musk left to then go and create Tesla and SpaceX and whatever else he got going on. I'm not an Elon Musk fan. Apple, we all know and love Apple. I have every single Apple device. All of my things are Apple.

We know Steve Jobs, but Apple was also founded by Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs focused primarily on the marketing and the vision. He was the one that we saw all the time, but the other Steve, he focused on the engineering. Over time, Wozniak ended up stepping away from the company and that partnership ended.

I bring this up for a few reasons. One, I wanted to show those of you who may be contemplating a partnership type of arrangement for your business. I want you to see the pros and cons. I also want you to understand that partnerships can be extremely beneficial and partnerships are always forever. As we look at some of these companies, Google,

PayPal, Apple that I just named Amazon. These companies started out with founders and then as they grew, their partnerships ended and then the companies were able to continue to grow. So for some of you, even I don't want you to look at if you're pursuing a partnership as something that has to be forever.

Even if the Lord, because I feel like as I'm saying as some of you guys, the Lord is leading you to partnerships, but you have some hesitancy because you can't see how you can fulfill everything that the Lord has placed in your heart, everything that he's shown you with a partner long-term. And so I want to provide a little bit of perspective that it doesn't necessarily have to be long-term. These co-founders are not still at Amazon, they're not still at Google, they're not still at Apple, but these companies are still thriving.

and whatever the Lord has blessed you with could still thrive even at the end of whatever partnership you start with. Sometimes a partnership can just be for a season to take you to a certain point. I've experienced that in my own journey where some partnerships were just for a season. Some partnerships were just bad decisions on my part, but some were just for a season and it got me to the point where then I could then branch off and then have room to grow into the next level of what God has for me.

So I don't know who this is for, but be patient and be open to how the Lord is calling you to start this business. I know that it is popular to be the big boss. You want to be the big dog, the one in charge, the one calling all the shots. You ain't trying to be accountable to nobody else. It's just you. But sometimes we have to collaborate. We have to be humble to the Lord and humble to our partners to be able to build what he's calling us to build.

And also be open for those of you who have started the businesses on your own to how partnerships can help elevate and take you to the next level. I've seen this even with my podcast. I've started this podcast by myself as far as like no advertising partners or agency partners.

It was just me and a co-host and then we changed to Bless and Bostop and it just became me. I was doing everything on my own. I was listing my show and all the advertising sites so that I could get sponsors and doing all of this by myself. But then a few years later, I was able to have strategic partnerships where a lot of the workload in that regard was taken off of me.

And now I'm able to grow way more than I would have if I was to do it by myself. The show is way more successful financially due to my partnerships than it would have been if I was still doing it all on my own. So be open to different partnerships and how the Lord wants to use those to take you to the next level, even if you've already been doing things on your own.

Sometimes we feel better or we feel like we're doing more if we're doing it all on our own, but that's a fixed mindset that's going to limit you and how you can grow an entrepreneurship. If you feel like you have to always be in control, you have to always call the shots, then that is a character trait that I promise you is going to hinder how successful you're going to become in business. So be open to partnerships and strategic partnerships that'll help you grow.

Now, I also brought up these real world examples with the Amazon, the Google, the PayPal because it closely mirrors the relationship that we're going to be exploring via the text. So again, our anchor text for this episode is Genesis 13, seven through 11. And this is based upon Abram and Lot's relationship.

Now, I'm going to use Abraham and Abraham interchangeably because I'm used to saying Abraham, but in this particular part of the text, his name was still Abraham. This is before it was changed to Abraham, but quick disclaimer with that because I'm probably going to use both of them.

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So before we get into their conflict, let's talk about their relationship. So lot in Abraham were family. Lot was Abraham's nephew. He was the son of Abraham's brother, Heron, their relationship as family probably created a sense of responsibility and a sense of closeness between them. That was one that probably drove the effectiveness of

their partnership. After the death of Lot's father, Abram took on a guardian or mental role, bringing Lot with him when he left Haran for Canaan after the Lord told him to. Because of their close relationship, there was a lot of unity there.

Lot went with Abraham on his journey from Ur to Canaan, and then later to Egypt during a time where there was great famine. And so of course, if there's famine in the land, there got to be a level of trust and unity between us if we're traveling together. And because of that mentee, mentor, uncle, nephew type of relationship, we could assume that Lot was relying heavily on Abraham during this time for provision and also for leadership.

And so if we look at their relationship before we get to the conflict of chapter 13, they were really close. They relied on each other. Abram really took a lot under his wing. And so there was just that family bond there, that connection that they had. Now, on the business side,

They were both wealthy. Both of them owned large flocks, herds, tents. Most likely their wealth came from a lot of their shared ventures and resources because they traveled together. So we could assume that they built that wealth together because they were always traveling together and had like this nomadic lifestyle. We could also say that they were pulling together a lot of their resources so that they can sustain their livestock and their wealth.

Now, as your business grows, as your wealth grows, so does your demand for resources. A lot of times as your business makes more money, you need to spend more money in order to sustain and you need to spend money in order to continue to grow. And so because they were in this type of situation where they were pulling together resources a lot and they were both wealthy,

then this calls some issues and we'll see those issues in a second and how they handled it. But I wanted to give you this background information on their relationship because their origin story isn't much different than a lot of us with partnerships or a lot of business partnerships that we've seen in the world. So even going back to the list that I gave before, Jeff Bezos and Mackenzie Scott formerly Bezos, they were married. They had a personal relationship that allowed them to build a business together.

You may meet people along the way and you build a relationship with each other, one that's built upon mutual respect and rapport, whether it's a familial relationship or it's a friendship relationship or it's someone that you've met professionally. You have a foundation of some type of relationship that allows you to grow as partners.

So I'm trying to bring this back into just modern day so that again, you can just always see that these things that we're reading in the Bible are relevant to how we're operated today. Now, let's land here on Genesis 13.

Give you an overview of where we are at this point. In Genesis 13, Abraham returns to Canaan from Egypt, bringing with him a lot of wealth and livestock, silver, and gold. He travels to Bethel where he had previously built an altar and worships the Lord. As Abraham and his nephew, Lot, Prosper, their herdsmen began to fight over the limited resources. Because remember, they were pulling together resources to build their wealth.

And now as their wealth is growing, resources are getting a bit skimmed. To resolve the conflict, Abram proposes that they separate. He allows a lot to choose the land that he prefers. Lot ends up selecting the Jordan Valley near Sodom.

while Abraham decides to remain in Canaan, trusting in God's promises. Now, after they separated, God reaffirms his covenant with Abram, promising him countless descendants in the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. This chapter, overall, it just truly underscores and emphasizes Abraham's faith, his humility and his commitment to peace, contrasting with lots of choice that was based upon short-term gain.

So, as we explore this text, we're going to learn a lot about how to be a partner like Abraham and less of a partner like Lot. Genesis 13, 7 through 11 says, and there was strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's livestock and the herdsmen of Lot's livestock. At the time, the Canaanites and the parasites were dwelling in the land. Then, Abraham said to Lot,

Let there be no strife between you and me and between your herdsmen and my herdsmen. For we are kinsmen. Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself for me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right. Or if you take the right hand, I will go to the left. And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw that the Jordan Valley was well watered everywhere, like the Garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zor. This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

So a lot chose for himself. All of the Jordan Valley and a lot journey East, thus they separated from each other. And you know what I find to be interesting. There's a very clear difference on where they are spiritually. I mean, we know Abraham. I mean, he's in the Hall of Faith.

and Hebrews of 11. We know that he was a man of great faith. He trusted the Lord. He was going to do whatever God told him to do. That's where he was at. That's where he was when Lot started traveling with him. He was always somebody that was fully committed and faithful to the Lord.

Lot based on his decision making that we see he was more focused on his own judgment and whatever was the most advantageous to him in a moment as we can see with even how he chose the land. He chose land that looked like it was the most fruitful, not even taken into account that it was near Sodom, which was a city known for his wickedness.

And so it just shows that he had such a lack of spiritual discernment and trust and guidance of the Lord. At no point was he like, let me stop and pray about it and then come back. He was like, Oh, that looks great. I'm going there. We could see in scripture that Abraham consistently built altars to worship the Lord. He always had a relationship and a connection with him. We don't see nowhere where a lot was seeking God for any decision.

To be fair, though, to give him some credit, in 2 Peter 2, 7 through 8, Lot is described as being righteous, but at the same time, his decisions, though, it wasn't given that I'm trusting God, that I'm seeking the Lord, where he settled, even him deciding to settle near Sodom.

His family was impacted and it led to the loss of his wife and so many moral failures within his own family. To the contrary, Abraham, we see how his relationship with God positively impacted everybody who was even around them. He was a blessing to others. He interceded for Sodom when God planned to destroy it. So I'm not saying that a lot was wicked. He was righteous. The text says so, but there is a clear difference.

between where he was spiritually and where Abraham was spiritually. And it makes me think and I believe this is why we just have to be prayerful about our relationships that we build because even though they were not on the same level spiritually, it was cool at first. They were able to travel together. They had a great relationship. They were able to amass

Great wealth together. It wasn't until this conflict with the herdsmen that caused the decision to be made for them to separate. But something that I think is important is I feel like it was okay.

for them to not be on the same page spiritually or on the same level spiritually for as long as Abraham was able to be in an authority role. So that way he is able to make sure or he's in a position to make sure that the Lord's will is done.

And I think that's an interesting point and something to consider when we're building our own partnerships and we're forming relationships with people who may not be where we're at spiritually. Maybe they are believers, they are righteous, but they're not in a space where they're fully trusting in God in every decision. They're not in a space where they are looking for the Bible on business. They're not in a space where they are just going to trust God despite whatever things look like in front of them.

And that's fine. Everybody has their own journey, but maybe when we are in a position where we're partnering with individuals that may not be in the same space we are, we make sure our paperwork puts us in a position where we can always have control to be able to implement what the Lord said.

So they may be shook by whatever may be happening in the business and want to make a different decision, but if the Lord is speaking to you to then do something else, you should be able to have the final say so.

That wasn't even in my notes, but write that down because I believe that that is a very practical way to ensure that you always have the freedom to follow God, even when you're in these partnerships where you do have to consider what your partner wants. I believe just having that control on paper will be very helpful. But also we got to be willing to walk away too.

And that is just a reality of us doing business the Lord's way, where we also have to be willing to walk away from anything that will put us in a position where it opposes what the Lord has us to do. But nevertheless, let's get back to some principles, because I believe that there are about four principles that we can pull from this text. That one was kind of like a bonus.

because that came to me as I was speaking. But I believe that there are four principles that we can pull from this story of Abraham and Lot to apply to our own partnerships and businesses. So the first principle I want to pull is that we need to have a full understanding of partnerships and their various types. It's not mentioned in the text

if they had any specific agreements between the two of them. But as we do business today, we need to always have agreements. Before you go into any type of partnership, you need to understand the different types of partnerships so that that can best inform how you go about your agreement. So there are just for educational purposes, there are a few different types of partnerships.

You have a general partnership. This is where all partners share equal responsibilities for managing the business and are personally liable for the debts and obligations of that business. It's this type of partnership is really easy to form. There are minimal legal requirements. Your profits and losses are typically shared equally unless you agree to some other type of agreement. The partners have joint authority.

in decision making. Now, this may not be the best if we're talking about what I was saying before. If you're not spiritually on the same page with somebody, this can be one that could be a bit more risky in the long call as far as seeing through the Lord's vision. If you guys are not on the same page about that,

The second type of partnership is a limited partnership. This is where it's composed of one or more general partners. So those are the people with the full liability and the full management authority and also one or more limited partners. So these will be people who have limited liability and no management authority. So for example, if you have like a real estate company, you have the general partners who manage the project who are in charge of the day to day, who have control and all of that.

And then you have the limited partners where they're just funding it. They provide them the money, they get whatever they're supposed to get out of it. And that's it.

You also have the third type of partnership is a limited liability partnership. So this is where all partners have limited liability and this protects their personal assets from any business debts and also the negligence of any other partners. So this is common among people like lawyers, accountants, consultants. This is where partners they can participate in the management without increased liability for the company.

The fourth type of partnership is a LLC type of partnership limited liability company partnership. This combines the features of a partnership and a corporation. Partners are referred to as members and they enjoy that limited liability while profits pass through.

to their personal tax returns. So this is beneficial because it has like a flexible management structure. And also members are not personally liable for any of the company's debts. So this is a popular option amongst a lot of partnerships, even my partnership with Anchor Media Studios is a LLC type of partnership.

The next type of partnership is a joint venture, a JV. So this is a temporary partnership that is formed by two or more entities to engage in a specific project or to achieve a particular goal. So a JV ends after the project is completed and the partners, they share the profits, the losses and control as agreed on in the JV agreement. So joint ventures have contracts that really iron out the nature of the agreement.

I'm in a joint venture agreement with the society. It's myself and the other hosts. We have a JV agreement to where we come together specifically to implement the functions of the society. That's the project that we are doing together. We are clear on what our roles are. We're clear on what our profit shares and everything is. We're clear on all of that.

And then whenever the society cease to exist, the partnership will cease to exist. I don't get anything out of their individual businesses. They don't get anything out of mine. We're coming together for this one particular purpose. And the last partnership type is a strategic alliance partnership. Now, this is where two businesses form a partnership to leverage each other's strengths for mutual benefits without merging or forming a new entity. So for example, if a clothing brand wanted to partner with the shoe company,

to create a co-branded product line. That's a strategic alliance type of partnership. And we see those a lot in the apparel category where these companies will come together and create like these product lines where you'll see both of the company's name on the product and they pull together their resources in order to make that successful.

So I go over all of these different types because I want you to understand that you have options when you form a partnership. And when you do form a partnership, you don't just go about it without fully exploring all of your options. The best way to do this is to consult a lawyer. As an entrepreneur, there are two key people that you need to have ready.

an accountant and a lawyer at all times because you always want to make sure that you're going about things the correct way. If you're going to form a partnership, go and sit with the lawyer and say, hey, this is what I'm doing. Now, what is the best partnership for this type of venture? What is going to protect me? Whoever your partner is needs to have a lawyer that's also representing their best interests. And then you come together with your lawyers to draft the best type of agreement.

When I was starting Anchor Media Studios, my aunt and I were going into it together. We love each other. That's my ride or die. Like, there is no falling out. Like, period, she stuck with me forever and vice versa. So even still though,

Before we started this partnership, I called my lawyer. She calls her lawyer. I'm like, hey, we're going into this business together. This is what we're trying to do. There's an asset involved as far as the real estate goes. How do we go about this? I have this other business, anchor media. The studio is going to have the same name, but it's going to be operationally different. It's a part of the empire.

But they need to be very distinct at the same time. So how do I make sure I protect, especially having a brick and mortar business versus an online business. The risk is different. The costs are very different. So I go to my lawyer like, Hey, I need to protect everything else that I got.

And so that this business, if it fails, God forbid, I still have other things. Also, I'm telling my lawyer, like, also I need a bit of control because I need to hear from the Lord on this business. And I need to make sure that I can do what the Lord says with this business and not be held back in any type of way legally.

Now, personally, my aunt trusts me. She trusts me as a leader in the business. She trusts me spiritually. So I know I'm not going to have these problems, but also in these to be in the agreement too. And on her side, she has things to lose. She has a great job that she's been working for a long time. She close to retirement. She's a real estate investor. She has multiple other properties. She has a lot of assets.

that she needs to protect. So she's telling her lawyer, like, hey, I'm doing this new business. I trust my needs. I think we're going to do great. But also, God forbid, if we don't, I need to make sure that none of my other stuff is going to be touched with this business. And so we come together and our lawyers say, OK, this is the best way that y'all need to go about this. And we move forward where all the paperwork and our partnership is formed in a way that protects our best interests.

And even if we have a conflict, our operating agreement says how we resolve conflict. And so this is why your paperwork has to be very important to where you ain't having a lot of spiritual conversations if there's conflict because your paperwork should already be outlawed and detailed for every scenario. And also, we always have to understand as believers that sometimes we may just have to walk away.

So what does that look like? If at any point this is going to conflict with the Lord has for me and I need to walk away, am I going to be liable for something? What am I going to have to pay? What am I going to lose? How do I set that up to where I could have a clean exit if need be? I don't need money keeping me in a position that the Lord wants me out of. So let me make sure that also in the paperwork, there's some freedom in case I need to do something different.

I hope y'all are understanding here, like we were in the Bible, but this translates easily into how we operate our businesses. We could see clearly from this text, when money starts getting involved, when people start making money, you got a team, they got a team, the team arguing, resources start getting skipped. Like at one point it was cool for y'all to share stuff, but now it's more of a hindrance than anything. So how do you handle that? All of that should be in documentation.

All of it. So that's the first principle that we are pulling from the text. The next principle is prioritize peace and relationships. So yeah, we got to talk about having our paperwork together. But as far as how we operate in this partnership, we need to operate like Abram and make sure that we are prioritizing peace. Abram valued his relationship with his nephew more than land, more than wealth, more than stuff.

He saw peace. He said, Hey, what, what you want? What land that you want? You choose first. You want this one. I'll take that one. I'm gonna be good regardless. Whatever you want. Go for it. I'm gonna be fine. That takes humility because he was didn't want to argue it like he didn't want to be taking out a map and then circling this and circling it unnecessarily. It's like, Hey, we have this conflict is clearly we can't do this together anymore. So go ahead.

Pick what you like and I'll take whatever's left. And this is another reason why paperwork is necessary because when you have an operating agreement, whatever your contract says for your type of partnership, it outlines all of this. If then, if this happens, then what? All of that is documented. I remember early on in my entrepreneur journey when I had a partnership,

I didn't have all the paperwork together. Well, I own the business legally on my own. I had a partner as far as title, but not as far as like equity or anything. So I was, I own the business completely. We worked together on it. So we were partners more so operationally.

But we didn't have a operating agreement or anything like that that further outlined how we want to do things. If something happened, then what would we do? And so we ended up falling out. It was the stupidest fallout. There was some tension that started brewing towards the end of our relationship.

But we ended up falling out because we were at a place where we were doing our business as if this is my youth program. So we had our program in schools. And so we were making a little bit of money. We were not making any type of life changing money. I woke up and went to work every single day. Like it was not any type of life changing money by any means, but we were getting our start.

But my partner felt like they should be getting some type of compensation that I shouldn't just be the one getting the checks. And I'm sitting there like, huh?

This check ain't doing nothing for me. I go to work. This check go into the business bank account, which is very separate from my personal bank account. This check pays for our hosting on our website, the materials we use to put on this program, all of these things. And after that, we don't have anything left, but maybe to take care of next month's hosting domain, like we were not making any money for anybody to be taking money home.

And there was this misunderstanding I feel on how businesses operate. And so that relationship just ended up ending. And I knew that and it needed to. And I was at a space where I was growing spiritually enough to where I knew like this relationship needs to end. But there were some foundational operational issues also.

And if we had our paperwork and stuff together, then that conflict at least wouldn't have been the one to end that relationship. And also, if I was to be handling it like Abram and would have been focused on peace, then I probably would have took a lot more detail of explaining that versus just being like, so you really think I'm about to blah, blah, blah, because that's where I was operating out of offense.

I'm like, so you really think that I will be pocketing money and just leave you high and dry. Like, is that what you think of me? We've been friends and blah, blah. So that's where my mindset was of being offended and arguing. And so again, if I was operating from a place of peace and relationship, then my response even would have been totally different in that situation to where maybe some type of relationship could have been salvaged even with the business one ending.

But you live and you learn. Again, I believe that that went exactly how it was supposed to. However, I could have been more like Abram had I had that wisdom at that time. So for you, as you build out your partnerships, I emphasize paperwork because that really takes care of a lot of unnecessary conflicts. But also, sometimes you just got to be willing to say, hey,

Go ahead, take what you need to take, and I'll take what's left. I'm gonna just trust God. Even if it looks like I'm taking the L, even if I feel offended by whatever may be happening, I'm gonna prioritize peace over anything else. The third principle we can take from the text is to make decisions with the long term in mind.

I believe that we did a, I did a podcast episode. It's been a few years now on the long game versus the short game where I was talking about, I feel like a lot of people, especially with this social media world, we played a short game when it comes to businesses, but we're not thinking of like 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now. We're not thinking generationally. We're only thinking short term.

And Lot was the same way. His decision on where he was going to settle in the land that he was going to take was based solely on benefits. He saw that the Jordan Valley was fertile, so he was going to go there. But it placed him near danger. It placed him near Sodom and Gomorrah. It placed him next to a wicked place that influenced his family. Even though he was righteous, he didn't have enough influence to where he wasn't impacted by what was happening over there.

April on the other hand, he was like, look, long term, I'm going to be good. So even if for the short while my business does less than it could have because my land isn't as fertile as the Jordan Valley, even if I may not have the short term game.

I know that I'm going to be good because in the long haul, the Lord is going to take care of me. And so we have to have that same mindset when we're having conflict in our partnerships, if we have to walk away and also just as in our outlook and partnerships as a whole. Because like I said before, it could be God's will for the first five years for you to have a partnership that's going to take you to a certain place and then you separate.

And then that sets you up for you to grow in your business more than you would have had you started by yourself.

You may be in a place where you've been doing business by yourself up into a certain point and now it'll benefit you to have a partner so that you can be able to grow and that contributes to the long term vision that the Lord has for you. So we always have to be long term minded and not just making decisions on what makes the most sense right now. And the best way for us to do this is to always be reliant on the Lord because guess who knows the longest of terms.

Guess who knows? No time. God, we have the Holy Spirit. So we have to always make sure, again, that it all goes back to the same thing, being dependent on the Holy Spirit, being dependent on the Lord. Because his wisdom, his guidance, his instructions are going to make sure that we always abide by these principles.

And then the last principle that we can pull from the text is that separation can lead to growth. Both Abram and Lot's separation allow them to pursue their individual individual paths without any type of strife or conflict. So they don't got to deal with China's scrap up the same resources. They didn't have to deal with the herdsmen arguing and all of that. They had space and room to grow.

And so we have to understand again with partnerships that separation can lead to growth separation is okay. When I look at how I started this podcast with partners. And how I transitioned into separating and doing it myself and how the show has grown.

I am mind blown at what the Lord has done. I could have never fathomed that we would be going into year eight. I could never have fathomed. I checked my account for advertising. I could never have imagined making six figures from a podcast. I could have never imagined that. I didn't know that that was a thing when I started. That's what everybody chasing now, but I had no clue that that was even a possibility in 2016 when I first started planning to start a show.

And I had no idea that little old me that the Lord will use me in such mighty ways. And by me separating and trusting God's guidance and trusting that I was going to be good regardless, that allowed me to truly see growth. And I think back to how afraid I was. I remember when the Lord first told me to do the podcast by myself, I procrastinated on making that decision official because I was scared.

And I told you before, I was afraid, like, who's going to listen to me? Who's going to care what I have to say? So that was scary to me. And then when he told me I had to start talking about him, I was really scared because who does that? Again, way before this whole Christian content era, I was, it was just not something that was done regularly. And so by me trusting in the Lord and by me obeying him and by me just surrendering to the separation and I feel it embarrassed by it,

not feel it and secure, not feeling any of the emotions that my flesh wanted to feel. It allowed me to grow.

In my old partner seems to be doing well. We don't keep in touch really, but I come across her on social media from time to time and she seems to be doing well also. So I can only say that a separation allowed for us both to grow in our individual paths. So if you are at a place where you, there's a separation that you're facing and you have feelings about it, but you know that the Lord is calling you to make this decision. Trust him.

And know that he would not be bringing you to this place and he would not be allowing this to happen if it wasn't a greater cause attached to it. So I think this is a good place to end. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I hope you have enjoyed the Bible on business series this year. I have. I mean, I've had a great time.

seeing what the Bible has to say and what that means for various aspects of the entrepreneurship journey. So let's recap real quick the principles from the text. The first one is have a full understanding of partnerships and their types before you get into a partnership. The second one is prioritize peace and relationship. The third principle was make decisions with the long term in mind. And the fourth is know that separation can lead to growth.

So that's it for another episode of the Blessed and Bost podcast. Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys and I'll see you in the next one.