Name: Jonathan Becker
Lives in: I live in Piedmont, California in the United States.
From: I was born in San Francisco, California. I spent some weekends and parts of summers San Francisco, but I spent most of my time and really grew up in an area called Point Reyes, in a rural area that is over the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.
Occupation: I am a business consultant, and I focus on helping business partnerships succeed. By “business partnership,” I mean a company where a group of people (two or more) own and operate the business. These can be very rewarding situations but challenging with potential conflict around strategy/direction of the company, money, fairness, personality, trust, and much more. I help these business partnerships at every phase, from starting off right to support future success and then later when they might have run into issues. The help is both on the human side and the business side, as these often overlap.
Tell us your first three jobs (ever!):
I worked at several investment firms in the San Francisco business district, doing different administrative jobs. One memorable moment was when I was supposed to take checks to the bank to deposit, and I lost a very large one. Peak stress!
One summer I worked for a tour bus company in San Francisco. There was a shuttle that went to different hotels to pick up tourists and bring them to the terminal where the tours left from. I wore a smart outfit and would run into the hotels and say, “Gray Line Tours now leaving!” and then herd the people onto the bus.
And then one summer I had a job working in a small husband and wife company that made business films. This was the very early days of microcomputers and my job was to run the one computer in the office, which included a database, word processing documents, and more.
Zodiac sign: Sagittarius
Enneagram type: Self-Preservation Type 6
What do you love about Greece? I have only been there as a tourist, once with a girlfriend from Japan and then more recently with my wife and our two sons who were about 6 and 9 at the time. There’s obviously mind-blowing history to take in, and great natural beauty. But I feel the highlight is the Greek people, who are very open, curious, and love to laugh. All our dinners were long and felt like we spoke with a lot of interesting people. I think it’s true the people in the U.S. can be too focused on work etc. and in Greece it’s much more about people. And the food is so unbelievably good.
Tell us something most people don’t know about you: That’s a hard one because I am not a very private person (or so I think). I guess I’ll say this: for my health, I think I need to cry from time to time. It’s usually a certain kind of movie that does it for me.
Tell us your top tip to combat climate change:
I believe Pachama (pachama.com) does a great job with C02 offsets. It’s hard to get people to change their lifestyles (personal and work), but this is a good way to lessen the harm. Oh, and I eat a vegan breakfast. It makes me more conscious throughout the day.
Anything else you’d like us to know?: If you are in a business partnership or starting a business partnership, I invite you to check out my website The Partnership Works where I offer some tips and tools to help you with your business.