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Family Wealth – a Safety Net for Taking Risk

Looking at Family Wealth from a Different Angle

A few weeks ago, in Soaking in the RendezVous Experience, Again, I noted that while that blog was all about the lived experience of that great annual happening, there would be future posts inspired by the conference’s content.

And once again, I’m being true to my word.

The final half-day, Thursday morning, began with a great panel that was titled “Fellow Forum on Well-Being”.

It featured a moderated discussion with 5 “PPI Fellows”, all sharing many tips, ideas, and secrets to their success over their decades of serving families.

While it was about well-being, their comments meandered over much broader territory.

Lots of Wisdom Shared, One Unexpected Nugget

I don’t normally take a lot of notes at conferences, preferring to pay close attention instead, on the assumption that anything worth remembering would surely stick.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older, or maybe it’s because they gave out cool pocket-size notebooks, but this time I came home with many pages of notes, including a bunch from that session alone.

One of the panelists mentioned that at a certain point in his life, he considered one of the key benefits of a family wealth cushion as “the ability to take a risk”.

As someone who regularly deals with families who’ve achieved a certain level of wealth, and who sometimes lament that that wealth can create certain disincentives in the lives of some family members, this resonated with me.

I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting ways to talk about wealth with families, to help them figure out the best way forward for their family.

Finding the Goldilocks Zone

So let’s think about this for a second.  Having a “safety net”, so to speak, sounds like a good thing, doesn’t it? 

Well yes, and….

If you have some family wealth to “fall back on”, you can try certain things that you otherwise could not.

That certainly provides one with more flexibility in life choices than not having such a cushion.

And, like any other seemingly good thing, it can be taken too far, in some cases.

Like so many concepts, many of which I try to explore in these weekly missives, it can become a negative, if taken too far.

As I considered this idea, I began to look at it from the viewpoint of many different families I’ve worked with or known, over the years, including my own.

As is so often the case, the trick it to find the “Goldilocks Zone”, i.e. just enough, but not too much.

Not Naming Names, As Usual

Without naming names, because I always need to be careful not to reveal too much here, let’s consider some real life versions of this phenomenon.

Consider a G2 family member who was gifted a certain percentage of the business started by their Dad that was soon after sold for nine figures.

That 8-figure cushion in the pocket of a thirty-something allowed them to move across the country with their spouse and a few grandchildren, much to the lament of the business founder.

Whether or not that ability to take a risk is a good thing or a bad thing depends very much on one’s perspective, doesn’t it?

Or the G3 twenty-something, who talks about the ability to “just be a school teacher and basketball coach”, if that’s what he wanted to do.

Judging by the look on his Mom’s face when he mentions this idea, I’m not sure she’s convinced that that would be a good use of the family’s wealth.  

See Challenges Transmitting the Value of Industry to the NextGen.

The Road Not Taken, But Could It Be?

Another client still has an operating business, so liquidity is not as plentiful, but he also struggles with questions of whether or not to even mention that some family wealth could be available to his offspring for them to consider career choices based on things other than the ability to generate sufficient wealth.

It can be difficult for me to even suggest such ideas to some clients for them to consider.

In my own family, my twenty-somethings have benefitted from educational opportunities many could not afford.

They’re now early in careers, and this question of opportunities to take risks is as salient as ever for us to discuss.

I think that it’s a great way to frame the discussion, and will encourage families I work with to have these intergenerational conversations going forward.

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On Vulnerability and Self-Righteousness in Families

Exploring the Relationship Between Two States of Being

As I write this week’s missive, I’m excited to see what I’ll come up with as we look at a couple of “states of being” that I’ve often seen in family client situations.

Regular readers can surely guess which one typically leads to more successful family relationships.

This post has its genesis in the opening keynote presentation at a recent conference I attended.

A couple of weeks back, in Soaking in the RendezVous Experience, Again, I promised that some of the content from that “conference” would soon be shared, and here we are.

All About Authenticity

Mike Robbins, author of Nothing Changes Until You Do, among other books, kicked off the day with a thought-provoking talk titled “We’re all in this together”.

He shared his “Authenticity Equation”, highlighting three components to authenticity: Honesty, Self-Righteousness, and Vulnerability, to wit:

 

  Authenticity   =   Honesty   –   Self-Righteousness   +   Vulnerability

 

I’m of the belief that any good equation is open to moving parts of it around, at least as a learning exercise, so I hope you’ll join me.

Let’s dispense with honesty first. 

Of course it’s important, but it’s really only table stakes, i.e., the price of admission.

If you’re anything less than honest with your family members, well, good luck.

So What About Self-Righteousness and Vulnerability?

Here’s where I think it gets interesting.

I thought about writing about these two separately, because Rogers suggests that you need to minimize the first one (i.e. subtract it) while maximizing the second (i.e. add it).

I fully accept that any amount of self-righteousness will lessen one’s authenticity, while any amount of vulnerability will add to it.

But as I considered this whole idea, I felt like there might be more to it.

Could the relationship between these two be one of mutual exclusivity?

In others words, can you even be both vulnerable and self-righteous at the same time, or does one preclude the other?

Could they be two ends of a continuum?

Compare: Being Curious vs. Being Judgmental

Let’s look at this by comparing it to another pair of states of being that some suggest are also mutually exclusive, curiosity and judgment.

I’ve heard (and come to believe) that you cannot be curious and judgmental at the same time.

Try it.

Getting curious precludes your ability to be judgmental, at least for a moment.

See No Room for Judgment when Working with Families

I hereby propose that the same is true of self-righteousness and vulnerability

Can you be both, simultaneously? I think not.

What Does Mr. Google Think?

When dealing with specific words that define a state of being, I always like to check with my friend Mr. Google to make sure I’m on somewhat solid ground.

For self-righteous, he came back with:

    • Having a certainty that one is totally correct or morally superior
  • A person who thinks their beliefs and morals are better than everyone else’s

For vulnerable, he returned:

  • Capable of being physically or emotionally wounded
  • Being in a situation where one is likely to meet with harm

Okay, I’ve got to admit, it’s not as clear as I would’ve liked it to be, so I’ve got a bit more work to do here.

Maybe if I put it into my preferred context, family relationship situations, I can make myself clear.

How This Affects Family Relationships

Let’s imagine a family meeting where there are members of at least two generations present.

I’ve been privileged to be in the room in many such situations with families other than my own.

I’ve seen my share of self-righteous parents lecturing their offspring.

I’ve witnessed them trying really hard to not sound self-righteous.

And yet, even unspoken, it is often right there, front and center, to the point where it’s all the others can see.

It’s the classic “one up, one down” scenario. 

I’m up here, you’re down there.

 

Leading with Vulnerability Instead

I’ve also been in the room when parents have shared real life stories from their past with their offspring where they were at less than their best.

Owning up to failures and missteps where the parent demonstrates their humanity (you know, humans make mistakes!) can be such a disarming gesture of vulnerability.

I always try to impress upon the family leaders I work with that what they should be aiming for is to have “adult-to-adult” relationships with their rising generation.

You are not always right, and they know that.

So please stop acting like you are.

 

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Responding Versus Reacting, Revisited

One Is Usually Better, But Not Always

This week we’ll be looking at an idea I’ve touched on in the past, but in a new light, thanks to an interesting exchange I had at a conference I recently attended.

When I crafted the title to this blog, I was convinced that I’d be able to link to a previous post that I’d written specifically on the “Responding Versus Reacting” concept I so often mention when speaking with people, but alas, that blog exists only in my imagination.

I will, however, still be revisiting the idea, because the conversation noted above forced me into a few different reflections: on the subject itself, how universally true I thought it was, and on how I share my thoughts on it.

So far this has been rather vague, I realize, so thanks for indulging my meandering style of setting up these weekly missives.

The Perfect Set-Up for Sharing a Favourite Idea

Allow me to set the context for you. 

It’s the evening before the first day of the conference, so I headed down to the hotel bar to see who else flew in early.

After chatting with some long-time friends and acquaintances at a table, I’m heading back up to my room to get some sleep when I happened to recognize a face from last year at the bar.

Next thing you know I’m offered a drink and I’m suddenly chatting with a small group of mostly strangers here for the same gathering.

One of the men begins relating a story about tension between a father and son, and we start talking about ways the son can learn to avoid similar situations with his own, teenage son.

Next thing I know I’m sharing one of many Zig Ziglar stories I have in my repertoire. 

(Curious readers are invited to type “Ziglar” in the search feature of my website).

Responding Versus Reacting

So I begin sharing the key differences between responding to a situation and reacting to it.

The simplest way to remember it, is to consider a medical situation and how we speak about the interventions that happen at the hospital.

“They gave him medication and he is responding” is always positive, whereas, “He had a reaction to the medicine” is negative.

When we take a step back and compose ourselves and respond to something that happens or what someone says, we have a better chance of things going well, versus immediately reacting without thought, which often escalates a situation.

When taken aback, I sometimes deliberately pause and even say, “I want to take a moment to think about this so I can respond, rather than simply reacting”.

I Thought It Was Clear, Until….

I felt like I’d made my point well and the conversation veered into a few different directions.

But imagine my dismay, when a while later one of the guys was relaying another story, where this time the problem was that someone had become way too complacent with a situation, and the protagonist was not responsive enough.

And as he concluded, he pointed to me and said, “Like you said, he should have reacted!”

Wait, what? 

I felt stumped and was thankful that the number of beverages consumed by all made this fade away as the subject once again got changed.

But I now had some reflecting to do, as my concept had been turned on its head.

Time to Revisit This

I think it was on the plane back home a few days later that it hit me that I needed to circle back and reconsider what happened and how I talk about this important subject.

Did I not explain myself well enough, was there a problem with my metaphor, or is it something else?

I believe I did explain it well enough, but there are limits to every metaphor, this one included.

It is still a good idea, in most cases, to pause and take a moment to provide a considered response to something, rather than simply quickly giving your gut reaction.

And, there are also times when pausing for way too long can be sub-optimal.

Flexibility Is an Asset

We need to recognize the limits of rigidity and the benefits of flexibility in many areas.

How long we take to reflect before we respond is probably one of those areas, but I will continue to err on the side of pausing.

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Soaking In the RendezVous Experience, Again

My Tenth In-Person Gathering with My Tribe

This is an easy blog for me to write each year, but also a difficult one.

I attended my first RendezVous of the Purposeful Planning Institute in 2014, as I was just discovering the world in which I am now fully immersed.

I vowed then to never miss this annual experience and I’ve been true to my word.

If you add in the two RendeZooms we did in 2020 and 2021, I’m now on a twelve-year streak.

If you’re wondering why this is difficult to write, it’s simply the challenge of converting a lived and felt experience into words.

But I think I’m above average at that, so I’ll give it my best shot.

Setting My Intention Going In

As I was getting ready for Monday’s opening reception, I decided to set an intention for the next few days.

This year, I was just going to try to “soak it all in”.

Over the years, I’ve played a variety of roles for this organization in preparation for this annual extravaganza, but I only had one small part to worry about, so just soaking everything in seemed like a good idea.

There was, as usual, a whole heck of a lot to soak in, and my proverbial sponge got quite heavy.

By the time Thursday rolled around, I was ready for a respite, if only to try to digest everything I took in.

It’s Not Like Any Other Conference

One of my favourite things to do during RendezVous is to find first-time attendees and ask them what their experience has been like.

Almost all remark that they’ve never been part of such a welcoming group of people, which is usually when I then share that by the end of the first day of my initial attendance, I told myself that if I could only attend one conference a year, it would be this one.

Someone noted that it wasn’t really a conference, it’s more of an experience, and I guess that’s a nice way to phrase it.

All Working Toward the Same Goal

There’s something about finding one’s “tribe”, and just coming together to share how we’re working our way through the many challenges we face in our work with families.

What we all have in common is that we’ve dedicated our careers to helping families plan for the transition of their businesses or wealth from one generation to the next.

While many professionals do work in this space, the vast majority do so in very technical specialty fields like law, accounting, banking and wealth management.

What brings the PPI community together is the work in what I sometimes call the “family circle”.

There’s a certain amount of “a calling” or vocation to the way many of us approach our work.

Still Feels Like a Niche

Because it’s a calling, people have very strong feelings about it, and when like-minded and “like-called” people meet, there’s a special attraction.

Many of us feel a bit lonely over the other 51 weeks of the year, so it’s a wonderful change to just be with and interact with others who are going through a similar life and career experience.

We all also know that there is a huge need out there from families who could use support with their challenges.

And as I like to put it, even though there is a huge need, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a corresponding huge demand for our services.

The result is that we can all use each other’s support in trying to translate that need into demand for our services.

Who We Are Versus What We Do

We’re getting to the end here and I still haven’t shared any of the great content I picked up; fear not, many upcoming posts will dig into that.

Likewise, the entire RendezVous is more about who we are together and how we are together, and who we are becoming together, than about what we do.

It was, once again, an enriching experience because of the great folks I’ve met there over the years.

The fact that I got to go up on stage wearing my Fred Flintstone shirt again (as MC of the FRED Talks session) was just a bonus.

The laughs I shared over Thursday’s “family dinner” with KH and AK were a wonderful way to cap off the week.

See you there again next year.

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The Elusive One-Big-Happy-Family

All Happy Families Are the Same…

Most weeknights after having dinner and watching the news, my wife and I watch Jeopardy together.

A couple of months back while doing this, there was a clue that referred to a famous quote from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.

Because my wife was unfamiliar with it, I asked my friend Mr. Google to get me the exact line, which is actually the opening sentence of that classic book from the 1870’s.

It reads, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

Unfortunately, this highlights the fact that there are lots of ways for families to be unhappy.

99% Unhappy, 1% Happy?

The very next day we were driving somewhere together and for whatever reason, it came up again, and we talked about it.

She noted that there are way more unhappy families, suggesting the figure of 99%.

I chose not to argue with her, and we both agreed that I had the workings of a blog post about this, so here we are.

The title of this post is meant to highlight the fact that most families want to be perceived as “One Big Happy Family”, but that under the surface, very few of them actually are.

As someone who works with families on the important subjects relating to their future wealth transitions, helping move a family from “unhappy” to “happier” is part of what I’m usually going for.

Who Gets to Judge this Matter?

A constant challenge to this work is that the family is not one unit, it is a system of many interdependent human beings, who each have their own views, opinions, feelings, and behaviours.

Many of the professionals who handle the more technical aspects of this work can get away with thinking about the family as a unit, but those who work on the relationship angle between the family members are constantly confronted with individual differences in each person.

There are usually some people who think of their family as a happy one, where other members of that same family would disagree.

Who gets to decide if their family is happy? 

What if I think we’re happy but I’m the only one who thinks that?

Ideally, we can find a way for families to talk about this to find ways to make each person a bit happier, which should thereby make the family happier as a result.

Could it be that simple?

Looking Back at a Couple of Past Posts

Thinking about this subject conjured up a couple of posts I’ve written here that touch on this subject.

First, in On Wellness, Performance, and Relationships in Families, we looked at how those three subjects are a convenient way to consider how people are doing.

Are they feeling well? Can they do what they’re trying to get done? Do they get along with all the people they interact with?

I suggest that the more Yes’s you get to those questions, the happier you’ll be.

And if more members of a family can get 3 Yes’s, that family would likely be happier too.

Key Question: Are there ways for the family’s wealth to support and contribute to getting more Yes’s to those questions from more family members?

Should Happiness Be the Goal?

Unfortunately, many people put a bit too much focus on happiness as a goal, which can bring negative results.

Back in 2022, I shared Make Sure Happiness Is a By-Product, Not the Goal.

That post was inspired by a session at an FFI Conference where a person who specializes in addiction treatment and recovery was the one who stated the line I used as my title.

How many parents do we know who did everything to make their children happy, and then realized (and regretted) that their kids did not develop enough resilience and independence to launch into adulthood.

Maximizing Each Family Member’s Human Capital

As is so often the case, when I set out to write on this week’s topic, I didn’t know where it would lead.

Between you and me, that’s what keeps me coming back each week, but please keep that to yourself.

If you want a happy family, those “interdependent human beings” that compose the family should probably be your focus.

If you’re fortunate enough to have accumulated plenty of wealth, why not use a portion of it to try to enhance the “wellness, performance and relationships” of every family member?

Maybe that’ll help you have that One-Big-Happy-Family we all strive for.

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On Experiments in Sensory Deprivation

What Happens When You Can’t See?

The virtual meeting world has certainly changed the way people meet, especially in the past half decade since the pandemic changed everything.

You’d think that after this many years, we’d have figured it all out, but alas, it seems like we have not.

Lest you think I’m getting tired of hearing “You’re on mute!” one time too many, that’s not where we’re going this week.

I’ve touched on some of the issues around virtual meetings in the past, notably in Who’s Zooming Who, and “I Can’t Hear” or “I Can’t Listen”?

But this week we’re going to look at what can happen when you purposely shut off a sense to good effect.

It Started with a Tech Glitch

A few months back I got on a call with a colleague and for whatever reason my camera did not work, so she couldn’t see me.

I was surprised to realize after a few minutes that the fact that I knew she couldn’t see me was affecting the way I spoke to her.

I you’ve ever been on a Zoom or Teams call with me, you know that I’m typically rather animated in my gestures and facial expressions.

Likewise, I prefer to be on calls where I see the others, because I also glean lots of information from non-verbal cues.

More recently, on another call with her, I mentioned this experience to her, it sparked her to mention the “hide self-view” feature in Zoom.

That’s where you can modify your settings on a Zoom call so that you still see everyone else who’s camera is on, but you don’t see yourself.

Try It, You’ll Like It

So we both immediately tried it for the rest of that call, and I’ve gotta admit, it was different, and maybe “more normal”?

Being somewhat slow to change habits, I haven’t incorporated this into my routine, yet!

Then a couple of weeks ago, on a call with my coach, she relayed an interesting experience she’d recently gone through as part of a leadership training exercise.

She and a group of people who’d been in the same cohort for a while were assembled in a group, and then blindfolds were handed out.

They were all instructed to put on the blindfolds, and then prompted to share something with the rest of the group.

Somehow, understandably, the quality of the sharing was deeper, because while blindfolded, there were fewer distractions that might otherwise have inhibited the person sharing.

Eliminating the Dominant Visual Cues

This story about the blindfolds prompted me to share what I just wrote above with her, and so she tried the hide self-view and liked it.

On our next call she told me she’d been using it ever since and loved it, so of course I mentioned that she had something stuck between her teeth and she believed me, for a second.

But this whole topic rang a bell about something she shared with me years ago, that difficult conversations sometimes go better while driving in a car, because the two people talking are not looking at each other.

When I reminded her of that, she mentioned that there’s research that proves that couples who go for walks together have longer relationships, quite possibly because they can have conversations where the dominant visual cues don’t actually harm the flow of ideas.

Tried and True Mediation Methods

Now that the ideas were flowing between the two of us, that roused in me the old mediation rule that you should try to avoid having opposing parties sit across from each other.

If you can get the people sitting beside one another, and put the “problem” on the table for both of them to look at from the same vantage point, your chances of success go up dramatically.

It seems looking at someone eye-to-eye may conjure up feelings of adversity that would be better off minimized.

This seems to be yet another case of “less is more”, where not having all the information or cues helps yield a better result.

Try Something Different for a Change

I’m hoping that this post might inspire readers to try to shake things up and try different ways of communicating, especially in relationships that may be getting stale.

Even that “hide self-view” feature on Zoom is something I think I may implement myself, because it probably feels more natural to talk to others without seeing myself on screen constantly!

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Inheriting Wealth, AND Structures

The First Part of Is More Appealing than the Second

This week we’ll be looking at an aspect of the world of wealth transitions that I typically don’t put a lot of focus upon.

In some ways though, this is a subject that’s long overdue, and I finally have a good excuse to introduce it here now.

We’ll get into more details below, but I want to start with the words I put in my title this week, about how people in a wealthy family will eventually inherit wealth, but that wealth typically comes in some form of a “structure”, or more likely, “structures”, plural.

I recently heard someone put it that way, but the first person I heard it from years ago is a good friend who was recently my guest on a podcast I hosted, and because that episode just dropped, it’s fresh in my mind.

Stop Frankensteining It

The podcast was Family Enterprise Canada’s Let’s Talk Family Enterprise, episode 68, titled Stop Frankensteining It.

My guest was Cindy Radu, and she was the first one I ever heard say “people in families inherit wealth, AND structures”.

The Frankenstein part is all about how lots of different professionals are typically involved in the creation of said structures, and the result is often some abomination.

The take-away message for this part is that incoherent, overly complex and incompatible structures make it even worse.

I feel like I may be digressing too much so I want to just get back to what inheritors are actually going to inherit.

Suffice it to say that most are happy about the wealth part, and less enamored with the structures that invariably come along with the wealth.

Very Valid Reasons for Structure

There are of course a number of very good reasons why people create such structures, and so it’s important to acknowledge what they are.

The goal is typically one of wealth preservation over generations.

The cynical way to state this may be “I want my grandkids and great-grandkids to benefit from my hard work and good fortune, so I need to make sure my own kids don’t spend it all or allow it to fritter away”.

The most common reason espoused is to save taxes, wherein the government / tax man is the common enemy of the whole family.

It’s very easy for any wealth creator to be seduced by a plan that clearly shows, down to the last dollar and cent, that if you do nothing you’ll pay $XXX to the tax man, but, if you implement this great plan I’ve drawn up for you, that number shrinks or even disappears.

All too often, though, that “tax tail” ends up wagging the whole family dog.

Limiting Access and Maintaining Control

The structures that get put in place also usually limit access to the wealth to specific people at specific times and for specific reasons, all with the goal of maintaining the family wealth for posterity.

This is sometimes couched in reasoning like protection from creditors and former spouses too.

There’s usually some terms in place that allow for certain people to remain in control of the wealth, lest the heirs be allowed to use it at will.

You can imagine that those for whom all this is purportedly being done may look at these structures in a negative light, that somehow leaves them feeling less than perfectly trusted by their forebears.

And that’s why it’s important to take the time to discuss and explain everything to the stakeholders.

Preparing the Heirs for the Wealth

There’s an expression I like that says people spend lots of time preparing the wealth for the heirs (i.e. creating all these structures) and not nearly enough time preparing the heirs for the wealth.

Preparing those who will inherit is better than not preparing them of course, but what is sufficient preparation?

So many people immediately jump to “financial literacy”, and while important, it is rarely enough.

Regular readers know that I encourage regular meetings that include dialogue between generations, so that information can flow upwards as well as downwards.

This allows the family to learn how the wealth can and should be used and stewarded for future generations, and allows the structures to be understood and modified over the years to evolve as the family evolves.

The structures are necessary, as we noted, but they don’t need to become the bogeyman.

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Too Much Vocation, Not Enough Vacation

It’s Important to Find the Right Balance

Welcome to another episode of word play, where I have fun juxtaposing similar words in new, useful and entertaining ways.

This blog style may feel familiar to regular readers, many of whom also live and/or work in the family wealth transition space like I do.

Helping families overcome some of the challenges with transitioning their business or wealth to the next generation is quite the little niche, but over the years I’ve come across lots of folks here, from all over the world.

Many of us are drawn to do this kind of work as a sort of “calling”, which is one of the words I often use to describe my own A-Ha moment when I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up, which occurred when I was 48.

So that’s where I’ll start, with the idea that this kind of work is often a true vocation.

Vocation as a Strong Feeling

I just asked my friend Mr. Google for the meaning of “vocation”, and he says it’s a strong feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation.

I’m not sure I could sum it up much better or in fewer words, so let’s go with that.

That strong feeling brings with it a lot of positives, of course. 

“It doesn’t feel like work when I’m doing this” is a common statement made by those who are lucky enough to have found theirs.

But naturally, I think, such positives usually have a corresponding negative, and that’s where we’ll go next.

It won’t surprise some of you that a recent peer group meeting is at the genesis of this blog post.

In fact, this is already the second post to emerge from that particular encounter, the first one being Circle Gets the Square – Non-Hollywood Version.

“I Really Need a Vacation”

This peer group runs on a “school year” calendar, from September to June.

So the wrap-up for the year just took place, and it was a full day, in person get-together.

As we were each doing our check-in with the group, I was struck by how many of us, myself included, mentioned how tired we were, and how much we were looking forward to some time off this summer.

That got me thinking that perhaps this wasn’t just some coincidence, but that maybe there’s something to this worth exploring further.

To do this work well, you need to put more than just your brain to work, because when you work with families, emotions are never far away.

While we also work hard not to become enmeshed with clients, that’s also another workload to consider.

Rodeo Clown and Court Jester

Things can get messy and scary at times when you’re playing a facilitation or mediation role among family members.

The ability to bring some levity to situations that are getting serious has us sometimes play the role of a “court jester”.

Other times, we need to jump in and be the rodeo clown, you know, those guys who jump in the ring with the wild bull after the rider gets bucked off, so everyone can escape without getting hurt.

Having said that, I just completed a wonderful family meeting recently with a family I’ve been working with for a few years, and I left feeling great, and on a high.

But, I was burnt out too, because the job of holding that space is exhausting, with much of the effort going into making it look easy.

We Are the Main Instrument in our Work

Sitting in a room with members of the same family when you are the only outsider (or one of a very small group of outsiders) is a special privilege that not many people get to experience.

We arrive with a proverbial toolbox and our experience, but we are there to take care of the process, while the family members supply the content.

That means that while we can (and do) plan these meetings, we don’t always know how things will play out. 

We need to bring our whole selves to such meetings; we are the main instrument of our work, the craftsman who brings the toolbox.

The tools themselves are not worth much in the wrong hands.

It’s hard work. And it’s rewarding. 

And you need to take time off to rest and recover before you burn yourself out.

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Challenges Transmitting the Value of Industry to the NextGen

Working Hard So They Won’t Have To

There are some challenges that people in my line of work see over and over again, but that usually lie somewhere beneath the surface.

We’re talking about transitioning family wealth from one generation to the next in a productive and meaningful way, which is so challenging because the creation of the wealth and its eventual transition typically occur in very different contexts.

Most wealth creators began from a place of scarcity and true need to do something to put food on their literal and figurative tables.

Decades later, when they get around to planning for the transition of that wealth to their heirs, those conditions are quite far in the rear view mirror for them, and possibly nowhere in the memories of those heirs.

Unfortunately, the value of “industry” does not always fall close to the tree.

A Confluence of Client Situations Creates a Spark

Some version of this challenge is percolating to the surface with a few clients with whom I’m currently working, which is what made it a salient subject for a blog post.

I wanted to find a phrase that captures it well, and settled on the “value of industry”.

It’s not perfect, but I like the fact that it leans towards a much less common use of the word “industry” than we usually come across.

I often share Google search results here, and now they arrive in the form of an AI summary, to wit:

   “When used to describe a person, “industry” signifies diligence, effort,                      and a persistent habit of working hard. 

    It implies a dedication to work and a strong commitment to                     achieving goals through sustained effort.”

Every hardworking wealth creator I’ve ever met hopes that this part of their DNA will live inside each of their offspring and all future generations.

Many end up disappointed.

Big Safety Net – Pros and Cons

Quite simply, most rising generation members of wealthy families become accustomed to living with a large safety net.

Many of those who don’t suffer from this are those whose parents worked extra hard to hide their true financial wealth exactly because of this fear.  But that method comes with its own set of drawbacks.

The word “entitlement” may be front and center as you read this. I’ll remind you that children become entitled in large part because of how they are raised. Entitlement Road is a two-way street.

Parents all say they don’t want their offspring to be entitled, and then many unwittingly parent them in ways that foster it.

The safety net is good, as most things with “safety” in their name are, but the other side of it is that it almost can’t help but erode the “industry gene’s influence” on how people choose to live their lives.

No Simple Solutions

I like to think that regular readers are used to the fact that I rarely provide simple solutions to the many challenges I share here weekly.

I sometimes talk about parents instilling a love of business to their rising generation, rather than a love of the specific family business they are currently involved in.

If everyone in the family has the “entrepreneur gene”, this can work well.

But societal norms are a huge headwind for many parents in their 60’s whose thirty- and forty-somethings do not value the 70-80 hour weeks of years gone by.

As I write this, I just received an email with the subject line, “Why younger clients want to retire early”; I could not make this up.

I know that the elders worry that their preteen and teen grandkids are getting a much different household vibe around the value of a job at which one toils for most of their adult life.

Sharing Stories and Co-Creating a Future

One thing I do know, though, is that parents lamenting this and keeping it to themselves isn’t usually helpful.

But regularly complaining about it in a judgemental way as a method to counteract it isn’t any better.

Perhaps the best antidote is regularly meeting as a family and talking about such matters, in and adult-to-adult fashion.

Sharing stories about hard work and its benefits and trying to help co-create a future in which this value of industry is a worthwhile pursuit for all family members can help normalize it as a laudable family trait.

It’s better that ignoring it or complaining about it.

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The Illusory Time/Money Trade-Off

Sounds Good, But Is It Real?

This week’s topic falls into the category of “I can’t believe I haven’t written about this yet”.

I’ve been sharing thoughts on the challenges in the family wealth space here every week for over a decade, and I don’t think I’ve ever dealt with this specific topic.

Not only that, but the catalyst for this post was a call I had recently with an old friend and former work colleague, who doesn’t fall into the wealth category that most of my clients inhabit.

Nevertheless, when we were catching up recently after far too long, he lamented the fact that he wasn’t wanting for more money, but was certainly being stretched for time.

That got me thinking that people who have plenty of money often believe they’ll be able to exchange some of that money for more time, but that that equation is not as straightforward as they’d like.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice

With a timely hat tip to the recently departed Brian Wilson, wouldn’t it be nice if you could actually buy more time?

Unfortunately, many people bust their hump for decades with the hope that some day, eventually, they can stop working so hard so that they’ll have more time for other things.

Of course there are some people for whom this does work out quite well, and maybe we should be asking them for their tips.

But if you take a look at my aforementioned friend, he’s dealing with an aging and ailing parent, and some very young grandkids who are clamouring for his time.

At the same time, his work life is now at a point where he’s busier than ever, and can’t see a short term solution to his being needed so much.

I happen to be a trustee of his family trust and we were talking about the fact that he needed me to sign some distribution cheques with big numbers on them.

“As you can see, money is not what I need more of, I need more time!” he said.

Do We Care Too Much?

Together we agreed that his biggest problem is that he cares too much about others, and if he were selfish, a lot of his problems would go away.

That’s almost a subject for a whole other blog post, but that may be too depressing to consider, because I think many people suffer from a similar condition!

But it does underscore the fact that simply taking some of one’s plentiful stock of money and believing that you can easily exchange it for more time is not as simple as you think.

And that’s true for a variety of reasons, most of which come down to the reality that dealing with human beings is rarely as simple as we’d like!

Where It Works Well

There are some straightforward areas where you can “buy” more time.

You can pay someone to mow your lawn or paint your house, thereby freeing yourself up for more enjoyable tasks.

But when you’re building a business that you’ve been dedicating your life to, it can be difficult to stop leaning forward and learn to lean back instead.

It can be done, and some people manage to accomplish it, but it doesn’t just happen

What Else Do We Need to Do?

There are a few things one needs to do to make this work.

I’m going to try to make them easier to remember by making them all start with the same letter.

Decide

Like so many other important steps we take in life, it starts with a decision. 

This might come as a result of a specific incident that sparks a lightbulb moment, or it might come as a result of an accumulation of exhausting days or weeks.

Either way, you need to make up your mind that you’re now going to change.

Delegate

Unless you don’t care about others and are ready to just drop everything, you’ll need to find others to step up and fill in.

This isn’t as easy as it sounds and can take time.

Even if you need to spend time training someone else, you’ll get that time back many times over later.

Don’t Back Up

Things will not go in a straight line or easily, but you need to continue to push forward, and never let up.

Whatever you do, don’t back up, or back down!

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