Eleanor Roosevelt once said “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”

This lesson can be applied to so many aspects of life. Listening to those with more experience than yourself is a great way to run up the learning curve and master your craft far faster than your peers.

I sat down and talked to coveted entrepreneur and CEO of Distinctive Living, Joe Jedlowski in order to find out some mistakes he’s seen and made in his distinguished career in hopes that it’ll help you avoid these mistakes and become a better business person.

You’ve said in the past that a bad team member can sink a business, do you think picking a good partner or team is really that important?

Absolutely. I mean, of course. One huge mistake I see is young, bright eyed entrepreneurs hopping into business with their friend, things are all great and fun at first, and a year later the business is completely abandoned.

It’s possible that if either of the friends went off on their own with a stranger, they would have succeeded, but their personalities and styles just don’t match in the business world like they do socially.

It’s important you have a good dynamic with your business partners, and that you have good, logical expectations with each other. You also need to recruit top talent to help your business ventures.

How can you tell if your partner is a good fit? Do you just gauge how well you get along with them?

Well that’s a good question and doesn’t have a very straightforward or easy answer. One piece of advice I really like to give on this topic is this.

Like any relationship, a business relationship will have ups and downs. There will be fights. Another huge mistake I’ve seen is that after one bad fight or one disagreement, instead of working things out I’ve seen people abandon ship.

I’ve seen this done in startups that had all the potential in the world. You have to be able to see things from an outside perspective and get a realistic, unbiased look at whether you can succeed with the people you’re working with.

What are some key workflow mistakes made by rookies? Do you see a lot of young people without the drive or work ethic to succeed?

Not exactly. Many young people aren’t lacking the drive or the worth ethic, contrary to popular belief. In fact, if there’s something young people have in droves, it’s energy and hunger.

The problem comes in knowing where to focus that energy and that drive. Many new entrepreneurs will spend way too much time in the planning phase, for example, and not enough time getting things done.

Finding funding, building the architecture of your business, working out a decent branding plan, and doing things that will immediately bring in revenue. Everything else can come later once you’re making a profit.

There you have it; key mistakes new businesses need to avoid. Straight from Joseph Jedlowski himself.

In summary, you want to choose the right partner, and focus your energy on the important parts of your business first and worry about the small details later. Remember, it’s important to learn from your mistakes, but it’s imperative to learn from the mistakes of others.

Read: 15 Reasons Why You Should Not Start Businesses with Friends