As a promise to my daughter, I am writing a fiction book and obviously one of my characters is a lawyer. In introducting the lawyer character, I have him creating a partnership over a drink in a bar. While I think the setting is hilarious, I will bet I have a good number of readers who say "Yup, that is how I did it."

I believe partnerships are worse than getting married. It requires the same degree of commitment but with a whole set of new rules and little hope of an amicable break-up without a great deal of pre-planning and communication. It rarely is well thought out and no boundaries or expectations are ever talked about or set up to help the partners deal with each other, not only in times of extreme success but in times of extreme stress.

I have been involved in some partnership break-ups in an effort to help the parties salvage new practices or to stabilze the ones going through a partnership break-up. Without exception, no matter what the reason given, it was never the real reason. As I wander my way through the emotions of the dissolution of a partnership, I have ceased being amazed how little each partner knows the other.

Having always been asked 'why', I can tell you this. First, the partners never truly knew the values of the other. They took at face value the partner had the same belief system. You never know this without going through some work to determine that you are both on the same page in certain areas you absolutely don't want to violate.

Second the partners did not have the same goals. An example would be one partner wanting to stay with a small time law firm practice and another partner wanting to build a mega firm.

And third, and this is the big one, you started out with the same values and the same goals, but you failed to account for change in your partner's life or growth. That is why every year smart partnerships hold retreats that take time to focus on personal and professional goal setting coupled with strategic planning.

Course corrections are a lot easier and a lot less expensive than breaking up a partnership. You might be surprised if you set up a retreat and truly listen to what the others say.