Since the end of January this year, I’ve launched myself into the field of family businesses by taking a course called the “Family Enterprise Advisor Program”.
If you read the Globe and Mail, you may have seen the full-page ad that ran on October 18, with the names and photos of the graduates of the Toronto and Vancouver programs.
But the funny thing about all this is that the program wasn’t over yet, since I was back in Toronto for our final presentation on November 1.
Some members of my project team received comments from people close to them congratulating them for having finished, but meanwhile, we were still working.
So when does it end? Well, the program has just wrapped up, and we’ve finally graduated. But it won’t be over yet either. Yes, we’ll have completed the program as such. But to get the “FEA” designation, we still have a few steps left.
We still have a written exam in November, and then an oral exam in February (Yes! Another trip to Toronto… in winter, no less!).
I’m not mentioning this to complain, but to illustrate something. Things that are worth doing are worth the time it takes to do them. I don’t know if I’ve mistranslated an English expression, but I think you understand me.
It reminds me of comments from some of the people close to me about my going back to school for the umpteenth time. “When are you finally going to be done with school?”
For me, it may never end, and I like it that way. It’s true that when I was young, I studied to prove something to my parents and to myself. But as I approach fifty
that’s no longer the case.
I loved the program and I highly recommend it to anyone who works in the field of family businesses. Most of the people who took the course with me are accountants, insurance salespeople and financial planners.
As for me, I’m a bit of an outsider in the group, since I come from the world of a business that my father started, and that we sold when I was in my twenties. Since then, I’ve been looking after everything that remained, including the real estate, the intellectual property and the investments.
In fact, during the classes, I identified much more with the instructors teaching the course than with those learning alongside me.
For those of you who work in a family company, you can probably also identify with the title of this blog. It never ends either!
Developing your business, and the abilities of family members to take care of it, are the kinds of things you’re never done with.
As soon as you feel comfortable about having settled one file, two or three others will already be about to demand your attention.
I’m among those who see life as an adventure, or a never-ending journey. I’m not in any hurry for it to end, either.
This blog, however, will end soon. But don’t worry, there will be another one next week. But this one ends here, now.
