PGA golfer Bob MacIntyre has a huge career breakthrough moment on Sunday with his dad Dougie, a last minute call up as an emergency caddie, winning the Canadian Open. In that moment Netflix’s “Full Swing” series had a perfect episode for the next season.

Consider this, if MacIntyre blows the five shot final round lead (he won by by one stroke), a golfer who has been through endless caddies in his first season based on the US tour, does he blame his dad and how does that affect their relationship?

My point is when you bring family and friends into your business, investment or sporting life in a formal sense, you have to be able to live with both what happens, and more importantly, what you do about it. That includes firing each other and the trail of emotional stress.

My business policy has not been to accept family and friends, as direct clients or co-investors in my business or investments. Some might have fewer options, and accept them as grown up adults making their own informed decisions. My advice is to tread very cautiously and to have a plan for

1. the logical relationship needs (goals to be met, return on time and money invested, progress/success metrics)

2. the emotional relationship needs (success/failure, fear/overconfidence, managing celebration/conflict, doubling down/termination etc)

3. preventative actions (regular in-person heart to heart conversations at ideal time, ideal place under ideal conditions) and

4. contingent actions (a support system with a qualified non-family member as an independent and honest counselor)

To be consistent and stick with the ground rules you both agree upon at the outset and put in place. An acceptance that any “partnership” will have a natural disengagement and require managing carefully in an orderly manner.

You might get lucky like the MacIntyre family. Arguably winning and celebrating with family and friends is no more satisfying an experience but so is losing and managing the “fall out” with family and friends arguably the most dispiriting experience. In any business, sporting or investing endeavour the odds are you are likely to lose more often than you win together, you just hope the size and scale of the “wins” outweighs the size and scale of the “losses” over time. Tread carefully, act wisely.