In September a woman named Helen Osei approached me about a partnership.
She ran a smaller studio, four people, focused on commercial hospitality design. Her portfolio was strong and her client list was different from mine in a way that would expand both our markets rather than duplicate them. She had been in the industry for twelve years and had a reputation for being difficult to work with in the way that excellent people sometimes were difficult, meaning she had standards and applied them.
She had heard about my building project through a mutual contact. She had looked at my portfolio. She had a proposal.
I read the proposal over two evenings. I talked to Kezia and Lena. I talked to Marcus, who read it carefully and asked six questions, all of which were the right ones.
"Do you want
