Nothing the slightest bit amazing has ever been done in isolation. 

This is the era of mingle mania. In a pared down society you are only as strong as the people you know. You may well be the smartest person in the world but if no one is aware of you, it does not make a difference.

Individual competitiveness = what you know x who you know. 

Overnight, each and everyone of us could set up a mutlinational company in our bedroom and using the Internet, we can reach a market of  millions of  people. 

Focus, focus, focus and then focus again means that we all need to find partners. We need to find parters to help us with each and every activity and process where we are not world-class. A lot of folks are used to outsourcing parts of their private life - cleaning, daycare etc. Not it is time to start farming out some of our professionals lives.

This is particularly true of small firms. I call it survival when things are tough. Growth when things are better. Whatever the times, partnership power means we get to  witness some really dynamic clusters of expertise and knowledge in our firms and we remain relevant, in good times and bad.

How are you partnering?