Like most Americans, my ancestry is a mixed bag. While my mother’s people had roots in Virginia, my dad’s people originated in the Caribbean Islands of Trinidad and Tobago but later migrated to the United States. Regardless of their roots, both of my parents used and were familiar with the African American term, “MOJO.” The term MOJO first appeared in the 1920s in the lexicon of southern African Americans. The term is defined as a state of energy or being where you become popular, persuasive, and successful. Whenever my family was prospering, Momma would say, “Your daddy got his MOJO working!
Years later, as I was writing my fourth book, Strategic Partnerships: An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Joint Ventures and Alliances, I was trying to come up with a term that would illustrate the good vibe and feeling when two companies form a strategic partnership that works and is successful. Borrowing from the old school word, MOJO, I coined the term, “MOGO.”
MOGO, as I used the term in my book, represented: Mission, Objectives, Goals, and Opportunities.
My research on this topic concluded that once the two companies created their shared MOGO together, the probability of the partnership lasting and becoming mutually profitable increased exponentially. The most critical quality in building a successful MOGO is trust between the two parties. This is why in the book, I devote a full chapter to the importance of building trust and how to maintain it.