You need partners to be able to grow, and I’ve been incredibly fortunate in this world. Meet my great friend, Dorian. Here we are five years after I founded this firm, Athena Executive Services. She no longer works for me, but we are still very close. She’s now married, has had her first baby, and is the Chief of Staff for a great company that was previously our client. She was a key player in the building of this firm for the first four years.

I would brainstorm with Dorian. I thought things through with her. She was my sounding board and my cheerleader. She was also the first person that I turned over some of the operations of the company to. After a couple of years, I turned over to her our vetting, screening, and development process that all team members go through before joining our team. She continued to serve our clients, but soon she was managing this important part of the business that was critical to our success.

She honed and improved our vetting process along the way. We have yet to post a job opening anywhere. The right people find their way to us and apply, and the right people make it through the screening process. In my great fortune to get to work with Dorian I learned how to delegate not just tasks and projects, but a whole system that is a key part of our business and has been a critical to our success.

This month I got to see her in person at a coffee shop briefly. It was the first time in 18 months getting to see her in person. I was two states away from home. She drove 90 minutes from one side of LA to the other, just to see me. It was such a treat to see her, and I’m forever grateful for all of the obstacles she went through with me in the building of the company.

Approximately half of all businesses close in the first five years. Proud to have made it past that threshold! Partnership was the Key!