Tune in today to any presentation or article on business and the words “alliances” and “partnerships” are prevalent. Finally, we all realize we need to “play well with others” and particularly those “others” where the benefits are mutual and ongoing. Partnerships that pass “The Kayak Test” will be the most beneficial to the planning and promoting of the spa.

The “Kayak Test” for partnerships reveals all. I never thought that a recreation that I enjoy could be a metaphor for goal setting and sealing a partnership, but I discovered it recently on a kayak trip with my husband and tandem Kayak Partner. We hopped in a tandem sea kayak to experience the Na Pali Coast in Kauai. Like business, it is for the ‘determined few’. We arrived at 6 AM to get checked out and be instructed that there is no turning back once we passed an early point in the trip. We would be out until 7 PM with 8 hours of hard paddling. It never occurred to me that my partner/husband would even think that he could go at his own pace and rest his paddle when he wanted, rather than ...