How to deal with a disrespectful business partner
Even when a partner's heart is in the right place, their cocky and judgmental behavior makes running a business together incredibly difficult. Their constant frustration and complaints that nothing is getting done force you to initiate an open conversation to confront them about how they are acting.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- This comes up 257.6× more often in r/Entrepreneur than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Trying to explain things by giving a list of completed work and trade-offsDid this help you?
- 2Trying to have an open conversation about behaviorDid this help you?
- 3Focusing on specific issues and alternative solutions rather than getting frustratedDid this help you?
- 4Never taking on a partner without clearly defined rolesDid this help you?
- 5Choosing to operate as a solo founder instead of having partnersDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Partner overstepped his boundaries, broke the design then walked away. In six months I had a product designed, tested and sold. Turnaround in two weeks $20,000 profit. DO NOT take on the WRONG partner! It WILL cost you!”source ↗
“I had a restaurant as side business with a partner. It was mostly a take out place. Partner was never there and I would go there in the afternoon to help out. Margins were too tight and the overhead was killing me. That whole debacle almost took out my main business.”source ↗
“spent two years trying to make a print shop work with a friend, we had the equipment and half a clue about design but zero clue about actually selling. bled cash on rent and materials for months because neither of us wanted to be the one making cold calls, eventually just ran out of runway and sold the presses for pennies.”source ↗
“Nightclub, main owner stole from everyone, even his best friend who later hung himself. Filed bankruptcy, committed fraud and got away with it.”source ↗
“But lately, he's been acting like a dick. Very judgemental, always frustrated and disappointed while complaining that nothing is getting done.”source ↗
“So I'm living through the difficulties. I do need him because he wants to help and his heart in the right place. But his cocky disrespectful judgemental behavior is just hard to deal with.”source ↗
“How do I deal with him? I want to have a open conversation and let him know that he is being a dick and he needs to be aware of how he has been acting.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 4Partner won't help with the puppy and keeps threatening to get rid of him
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