Quality of the Management Team

In “Beware the January Divorce,” I stated that marriage is a corporation; you, the man, are the minority shareholder. And, the more children you have, the more your minority share dwindles. If this were not so, if matrimony were such a great deal for men, they’d be more interested in a trip down the altar than in watching SportsCenter, wouldn’t they?

Let’s put marriage aside to focus on just becoming a couple. Most people cannot assess how well-suited they are for each other or whether their relationship is based on love. So, allow me to offer a quick test, borrowed from the world of venture capital, to gauge your probability of success.

A venture-capital firm (VC) creates a fund by raising money from large pensions and university endowments, which allocate small percentages of their treasures for high-risk investments. Then, the VC searches for the next Google or Apple startup, into which it invests a certain amount of cash in exchange for ownership. The VC makes a profit when its startup prospers, grows in value, and then either goes public or gets purchased by a larger company.

Because a VC cannot predict the ultimate success of any startup’s product or business plan — in light of the inevitable economic, technological, and competitive changes that will appear on the horizon, as well as incalculable shifts in consumer habits and appetites — it makes an investment decision based on the quality of the management team. Specifically, the VC must ascertain the following qualities in the team:

1. Does each member of the team, as an individual, add significant value to the enterprise?
2. Do the team members respect each other and work well together, especially under stress?
3. Does the team, as a unit, have the skills to address and remedy all speedbumps and failures it will encounter along the way?

In most cases, if the startup meets these three hurdles, assuming its product and business plan are sane, the VC will greenlight the investment.

The NoNonsense Bottom Line

There’s an important lesson here: The success of any relationship, whether business or romantic, is based on the quality of the team. When people are going through a divorce, they realize, unfortunately for the first time in many cases, that they never were a team. That’s a hard pill to swallow, especially after a long-term marriage.

I urge both parties contemplating entering a committed relationship to engage in a serious assessment of themselves — as individuals and as a team. Apply the three hurdles above and then ask the simple question: Who would invest in us? If you’re totally honest, you knew the answer after three dates.

About the Author

Marc H. Rudov, The NoNonsense Man®, is a globally known radio/TV personality, relationship coach, and author of 100+ articles and the books Under the Clitoral Hood: How to Crank Her Engine Without Cash, Booze, or Jumper Cables (ISBN 9780974501727) and The Man’s No-Nonsense Guide to Women: How to Succeed in Romance on Planet Earth (ISBN 0974501719). The 2008 recipient of the National Coalition of Free Men’s “Award for Excellence in Promoting Gender Fairness In The Media,” Mr. Rudov is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor.

Rudov’s books, articles, radio/TV archives, and podcasts are available at TheNoNonsenseMan.com.

Copyright © 2009 by Marc H. Rudov. All rights reserved.

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