This coming Saturday, January 16, I am honored to be invited back for the third year in a row to act as a judge for the University of Vermont Global Family Enterprise Case Competition (FECC) . The natural beauty of Burlington, Vermont is a great reason for me to trek up north and when combined with the intellectual stimulation of serious, smart and interesting undergraduate and graduate students competing on 24 teams from top institutions of family business education in 10 countries – it is one of my favorite Read more »
Wealth Psychology Consulting
Family Business Questions for 2016
It is that time of year when we tend to look back and review what has transpired, for better or worse, while looking toward the future with the hope of learning from past lessons so we grow going forward. Here are the top two questions I routinely pose to business families. Sometimes I’ll ask these outside of any specific context simply to see how families respond. Other times I’ll ask as families are struggling with a very specific challenge: How Read more »
Family Business in Flight
I was recently flying with my wife and we were discussing how hard the flight attendants worked and how rude some passengers on flights can be. I worked as a waiter in college and grad school which has much of the stress of being a flight attendant with much more space to move around easily in order to get the job done and also to escape rude people! The kitchen can be a safe haven (unless the chef is in Read more »
Raising a One Year-Old Millionaire
In my work with enterprising families I spend a lot of time with parents who are concerned about how their financial success will affect their children. Almost universally there is concern about children being negatively affected, becoming spoiled, unmotivated, feeling an unhealthy sense of entitlement to the wealth their parents (or family members even before parents) have created without having to earn it. There is a lot these parents can do to have a powerful, positive impact – starting when Read more »
Carlos Santana (& Son???)
Last month I got great seats to a Santana concert at the PNC Bank Arts Center (formerly known as the Garden State Arts Center) in Holmdel, NJ. I worked security there the summer after my freshman year of college (too many years ago) and when Carlos Santana and band played the summer of 1985 (THAT many years ago…) I got to sit a few rows from the stage as Carlos warmed up (amazing!) and experienced the entire show next to Read more »
Birthing a Family Business CEO
So, you’ve found a way to procreate and give birth to offspring particularly well suited to becoming a CEO – specifically, able to take over your family’s [enter type of business here] business. This child has been born with all the necessary skills to take over and grow a business in your industry. How exactly does this happen? Does the Kama Sutra give direction in special acts to obtain this result? Is there a laboratory DNA intervention that can effect Read more »
Gandhi & Family Business Truth
I am currently two-thirds of the way through Gandhi’s autobiography (Gandhi: An Autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth). What an amazing man; he details his struggles – triumphs and failures – as he seeks a deeply spiritual and honest life. I am in awe of his commitment to serving others and the sacrifices he was willing to make along the way. I did not know much about the specifics of his life before reading this and I am Read more »
The Proactive Mindset
In my work with enterprising families I get to see a lot of heart-warming situations. Parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas develop rising generations and build on the generation(s) before them, combining family life and economic life in a way that brings out the best of both. These families have a way of seeing many possibilities for how the future can play out and they embrace them over time, sifting and sorting through them, looking at pros and Read more »
Raising a Two-Year-Old Millionaire: Please, Thank-You, I’m Sorry and the Golden Sippy-Cup Rule
For legacy families and financially successful business families thinking about having kids or actively raising them, there are almost always concerns about children becoming spoiled, lazy, self-absorbed and – the grand fear of all – entitled. Truth is, pretty much every parent wants to avoid these things -regardless of financial resources. What poor, working-class and middle-class parents have on their side is the fact that there is simply not enough money for kids to do nothing at all. Wealthy families, Read more »
Family Business & Ice Hockey
If you’ve read this blog for any length of time you may have noticed I have a tendency to find relationships between family business and ice hockey. For example my March 2014 blog entitled, “ Women in the Family Business (and Pro Ice Hockey for That Matter)” attempted such a connection. I play in a men’s league and coach my 13 year-old son’s team and love it all. Last week my son’s team won in triple overtime to advance to the championship game which was this past Sunday. Unfortunately, the timing was Read more »