The Great Diva of Spoiled Selectiveness

A friend of mine and I are considering formally going into business together. She's actually more than just a friend - we are the old married couple of professional relationships. Over more than a decade, she's been the boss of me, I've been the boss of her, we've been partners and colleagues. We know each others' strengths and Achilles heels, and are long past being too shy to point them out. We've had hideous disagreements, yet still like each other real well; we've had successes that brought us praise and much fun. On a good day we can finish each others' sentences. We have similar standards of quality, yet complementary ways of looking at things. If there's anyone I could envision going into business with, it's her. I'll call her Zena.

Anyway, Zena and I haven't done anything to formalize this - we haven't even boned up on the different legal structures available to us for forming a joint business - Limited Partnership? Corporation? But we got an inquiry recently about a gig, from someone specifically interested in hiring us together. And after considerable thoughtful discussion, we decided to politely decline. Partly, this was because the timeline is tough with the gigs that we each independently have right now. But also, we decided that this job would be a Big Energy Suck. Our intuition told us that the work would literally suck life energy from us. They're great people and a great organization and a great project - it's nothing like that...(she says, mindful of the perils of blogging about work - as Dooce says, Be Ye Not So Stupid!). But we thought, well - if we're going to do this, let's at least try to go for work that will make us jump out of bed each day with enthusiasm. You don't get what you don't try for.

I can't help thinking - how naive and spoiled is that of me, that I want work that makes me jump out of bed each day with enthusiasm? That I'm willing to turn down good work with good people for a good wage because I'm holding out for more? Am I crazy?

Zena agrees that if we're both starving a year from now, we may need to revisit our standards. But for now, we're partners in craziness. We're still looking for a name - perhaps the Great Diva Consultants Who Only Occasionally Condescend To Accept Actual Work Associates, Inc, A Limited Partnership. Very Limited.