Knowing two cultures didn’t protect me. It made me careless.
The first time I took a draft distribution agreement into a meeting in Istanbul, I slid it across the table before the tea had arrived.
I thought I was being efficient. My counterpart read it as a sign I didn’t trust him.
That’s the thing about trust. Most markets agree on what it looks like. They disagree on the order you build it in. In many Turkish business relationships, the relationship comes first and the paperwork follows. In many British ones, it’s the other way round. Neither order is wrong. Assuming yours is universal is.
I’ve done business between Istanbul and London for many years. You’d think that would make me the last person to get this wrong. It’s the opposite. Familiarity stops you from checking the assumptions you don’t know you’re making.
I’ve written up the three partnership lessons that cost me the most in a new article for Forbes Business Development Council:
The one most founders underestimate is the money they never planned for. Our first cross-border budget had careful lines for freight, duty and marketing. Nothing for time. Nothing for currency. Those became the two highest costs.
The fix costs nothing. Write down three assumptions about the market you’re entering: one regulatory, one cultural, one financial. Then find someone in that market who’ll tell you which one is wrong.
The border you know best is the one you check least.
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