Whenever someone made a choice different than my mom's or our family, my mom would say, "You have to let everyone live their own life." No matter who we collaborate with, we will find that there are places where we come together and places where we diverge. Now people live the exact same lives or make the exact same choices. In fact, that's one of the challenges of collaborating with others, it's sometimes difficult to reckon with our different choices, and sometimes we may want to dictate what others do.
The best collaboration is like a dance--you move to and with each other in ways that meet your common purpose, and then you give each other space for your individual pursuits. We are all parts of multiple teams, and in each of those teams we find areas of camaraderie and areas of divide.
I was reminded of my mom's advice today as I thought about the many groups I collaborate with and the many individuals I have a variety of relationships with. We have to respect our time together and our time apart--we also have to respect our common traits and interests and those that are different. Onward.