The other side of business...

A former boss of mine in Japan said to me "I only do business with people I like."

The obvious component of business success is a relentless focus on the objectives and the metrics. The other is the people. There are those on your direct team, your co-workers and employees, but there are those with whom you do business.

Once upon a time, I would go to a conference and dilligently attend the sessions, looking to acquire as much theoretical knowledge as possible. Now, however, I realize that equally important is understanding (and I mean really understanding) the people outside of your business with whom you work-your partners and customers.

Instead of getting out early, I stayed out late, nothing crazy, but just chatting with people, figuring out what makes them tick and what they want in life and business. It's about having the comfort so that when those tough moments come in business-and they invariably will-you can call someone up and say, "man, this isn't working right" and the person on the other end of the line trusts you.