My dad ran his own company for 35 years. One piece of advice he gave to me was to always have control. My corollary to that is to be fine being a minority stake

My dad ran his own company for 35 years. One piece of advice he gave to me was to always have control. My corollary to that is to be fine being a minority stakeholder, but recognize that you don't have control so the one with control ultimately will call the shots. Over the last 15 years I have participated in CEO groups with around 30 companies. My limited anecdotal experience says that a 50/50 split is bad, but a split where two people have leverage over a 3rd is ok. So a 3 way split is fine. Ultimately there just can't be deadlock, when everyone disagrees, someone needs to be able to make the call.