Seema Kavi, Director of Quivira Capital
Before meeting my now husband and business partner, I believed my path in life had already been written.
I would join a reputable firm in the City as a corporate lawyer and I would remain single forever, slowly gathering more and more cats until my house was full. The idea of running my own business and finding my partner for life did not occur to me until I met my Mr Right. He gave me the confidence to take the leap from employee to Director, and bachelorette to Wife! Never in my wildest dreams did I expect my head and my heart to look up from the map of life, nod in consensus, and point me in the same direction.
Our business and our mind-set do not allow us to pause for breath. There is never a tranquil moment in our business or our home because we keep striving to do more, achieve more and learn more. Together we run a successful, growing bridging finance and property development company. We have built the business from the ground up, adding value where we can and we have found that our relationship outside of the office has helped make the decision making processes at work more efficient, as we are able to sit around and come to a conclusion based on the facts. We play to each other’s strengths, negotiating and compromising with each other, making mistakes, and learning from them.
We have built our marriage in the same way.
It would be wrong to suggest our work/life setup doesn’t have a few snags. As you can imagine, working together and living together brings its own set of trials and tribulations. A calm, professional argument in the meeting room can lead to explosive words in the matrimonial home! As much as everyone will say keep work disagreements out of your personal life, this is much harder to put into action when you are in the same house, so we have tried to make a point of not going to bed on an argument.
So why does it work?
Together we have somehow managed to create an indestructible partnership. We have our various hats – husband, wife, Director, Partner – which we put on and take off as and when the situation requires us to. I truly believe that the key to our successful partnership is the mutual respect we have for each other, each other’s perfections and each other’s imperfections. In our industry, we are constantly making high-risk decisions, but despite the financial risk, we trust each other implicitly to make the right choice. We are able to undertake new transactions and ventures which may require more time and financial input, which a business partner who wasn’t also a life partner would struggle to commit to.
Can I state with complete assurance that as a team we will continue on this upwards trajectory, climbing higher, both personally and professionally? Of course not, and it can be incredibly daunting some days when you realise that you have both committed everything into the business and there is no safety net – but in the words of the eternally glorious Carrie Bradshaw – I’m not afraid of heights…have you seen my shoes?
