Think Bigger

LESSON 11The Right Partner Can Multiply Your Potential

I was lucky to find a partner who not only helped me achieve my vision, but was also a mentor who taught me lessons that I continue to benefit from. Many of the successful entrepreneurs I know turned the concept of a partnership into a strategic tool throughout their careers—both for maximizing their own personal potential to succeed and for driving their business models.

I’ve known Ron Bruder for more than a decade. My admiration for how he has managed his phenomenally successful career has only grown over the years. Ask him about his success, and the first thing he’ll talk about is the value of partnerships.

First, a bit about Ron. Ron grew up in a hardworking family in a rough neighborhood of Brooklyn. “My parents gave me the belief that I could achieve whatever I wanted,” he recalls.¹ At 17, he was selling encyclopedias. He created a profitable business by hiring stay-at-home mothers to make phone solicitations and paying their kids to slip proposals through doors. After studying physics and then economics in college on scholarship, he also went on to earn an MBA. Then Ron took over a distressed travel agency in Clifton, New Jersey. Within a few months, he talked his way onto the American Airlines Sabre computer network, increasing his traffic exponentially. It is hard to appreciate how ahead of his time Ron was. Sabre was the first computerized airline reservation system. The mid-1970s were still 20 years away from ...