Sometimes, it’s hard to work with your friends to get anything done, to make any productive decisions everyone agrees with.  If that is true, what made Tim Warrillow and Charles Rolls decide to go into business together just after about a few hours of knowing each other?

Well, Warrillow made quite the first impression on Rolls.  Rolls said he was not too concerned about starting a tonic water brand (Fever-Tree) with Warrillow as “‘[Rolls] could see an energetic, but pretty mature and determined individual.  Tim was exactly the right type of person.'”

But what is the right type of person?  What makes someone good in business?  When I sit in the CPA Hall between classes, I see all these people– older students dressed far more professionally than myself, fancy latte in one hand, fancy smartphone in the other– and they almost seem to blend together.  Like they were all cut from the same mould that mades a businessman/businesswoman.  But what about those people who don’t feel like they fit that mould?  The ones who are different.

Good news for them is that there isn’t a mould and business is driven by being different.  In products and people, differentiation is a positive thing (a strategy in fact).

From Rolls’ first impression of Warrillow, I gathered that while there isn’t a cut-and-dry type of business person, there are some advantageous traits that I feel successful business people share.  As quoting Rolls, some of these are maturity, energy and determination.  You won’t get anything or anywhere in business by being a whiny child– maturity.  Business is fast and dynamic– energy.  And nothing will ever move forward if you don’t have the drive nor the motivation– determination.

Or maybe it doesn’t take any of those traits.  Maybe if you just care about what you’re doing then you’re set.  Maybe passion for something is what motivates and drives success.

Rolls also says that, “‘As long as you have mutual respect you can go a long way further in business with two heads rather than one.'”  In business, even if you’re the boss, teamwork is key.  You have to respect and cooperate with one each other— fundamentals most are taught in preschool.  With the right team of committed and driven individuals, any business can flourish.

What does it mean to be in business?  This is something I think about a lot.

I will always think about this a lot.

Bibliography

Setting up business with a stranger. (n.d.). BBC News. Retrieved September 28, 2014, from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29209814