How great partnerships work

Partnerships (at least the successful ones) … encourage a series of characteristics — trust, teamwork, a regard for someone else, and continuing checks and balances. [Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed]

As I thought about (that question), I found myself wishing I was an artist rather than a weekend writer. Inspired perhaps by Marc Chagall, I would paint three canvases to make my point, all of a man riding a horse. The first would be a tiny man atop a giant horse, the second would be a giant man atop a tiny horse, and the third would be a man and a horse of equal sizes. In the first scenario, the horse would be too strong, and too uncontrollable for the man. The second would be equally unsuccessful, for a tiny horse can't move with a giant man weighing him down. But the third match would be perfect, with the man and horse able to move successfully in concert. The man represents intellect, the horse represents emotion. Both need to be equally balanced for any leader to succeed. [Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed]

The best combination, (Eisner) learned, comes from partnership, when two people balance each other, constantly reminding the other of the need to keep the conscious and unconscious in harmony, to make each other smarter, make each other better. [Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed]

"Both of you want the spotlight," I remember him saying bluntly. "Take Charlie and me: I want the spotlight, but he doesn't. So it works. And Charlie has integrity, which further ensures that it works. You will be in conflict with Ovitz from day one, and you will never trust him. Don't do it." [Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed]

They have complete trust, complete faith, and complete belief in each other. And that reverberates through every phone call they have, every deal they discuss, and every decision they make.

"You cannot keep score," says Warren. "It just doesn't work with the best of human relationships. It shouldn't be even suppressed — it should be something that doesn't even exist." [Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed]

Munger is not the standard model for the kind of partner who prefers to lie low and fade into the background. Everywhere else in his life, Charlie Munger plays the alpha role — with his family, in board meetings for the variety of companies and charities with which he's involved, with me when I visited him at his office. I usually don't have trouble getting a word into a conversation. Talking to Charlie Munger is different — I did a lot more listening than talking.

"That's one of the beauties of the partnership," says Charlie. "I am in so many activities where I am the dominant personality. Most people do not 'fit into' that mode — they can only operate in that mode. Yet I am particularly willing to play the secondary role. Warren's a more able man in doing what we're doing, so it's the appropriate response. There are some times you should be first, some times you should be second, and some times you should be third." [Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed]