Overcoming a Challenge

Callum

Our podcast guest today is Tony Petrozza, who is a personal development coach that has created true self-help coaching. Tony will be sharing a challenge that he overcame.

Tony Petrozza

As an entrepreneur, one of the challenges I have faced is around partnerships.

Prior to Perficio, I had multiple business partnerships that fell apart because one of the parties didn’t fulfill their end of the deal. For example, one of my past partners wanted to become my boss — which was not good for the partnership because we agreed early on that we would make joint decisions.

My current partner at Perficio, Daniel Rosinsky, is the yin to my yang. However, it took a lot of work to get to the point where we are now. In fact, we were partners previously, but the professional relationship was put on hold when Daniel moved to a different state. We remained good friends and, since Daniel is well-versed in business and technology, he told me that he would help me create the investor presentation for Perficio (a personal development app that blends digital coaching into a self-help course).

I should also mention that one of Daniel’s hobbies is scuba diving — and we have gone on several dives together (I consider him my best scuba diving buddy). It was during one of our cave dives that I realized that our ability to communicate (without saying a word, everything under the water is non-verbal) was so synchronized and on-point. After the fact, I watched the video of us in the cave and realized that I don’t have to find another partner — Daniel is my partner!

So, my challenge was to re-partner with Daniel. I realized that, to me, success in business is more than just a number on a spreadsheet. All relationships (business, family, friends, etc.) require communication — and I know that it doesn’t always come as naturally as it does between Daniel and me. Not partnering with someone who understands your communication signals (and me his), while inside a pitch-black cave under the water, would be a missed opportunity in my book.

When I presented Daniel with the new partnership agreement, he was thrilled and said yes. This time around, I gave him more than he asked for because I wanted to show him that this was a true partnership. I might be the senior partner on paper, but he is as indispensable as I am to Perficio.

Our partnership over the past few years has taught me the importance of having another person you can depend on through thick and thin. When I’m weak, he’s strong and when he’s weak, I’m strong. The foundation we are building with Perficio and our company is centered around our strong partnership and the (often silent) communication we share.