Legacy Needs Harmony

I believe that just about every family business leader wants the same thing.

In the short term, there are many ways to achieve it, but in the long run, not only business people but all people,

want to be remembered fondly and to have their efforts appreciated.

I mean, how many people do you know who want to be remembered as a scoundrel?

Today’s topic is family business legacy.

Every family business founder wants to create a lasting positive legacy.

And even though many acts as if they’re going to live forever, well, nobody does.

Getting these people to actually commit to doing some serious continuity planning can be a huge problem,

so I wanna talk about a pre-requisite that must be present, but which is not spoken about enough.

I like to call it Family Harmony. Despite our best attempts to avoid it, every single one of us will die someday,

and there will be other people that we’ll leave behind.

Like it or not, it will be up to those people to ensure the positive legacy of the family business, and the business family.

Let’s try an analogy here

Even if you’ve never been camping, you’ve surely driven by a campsite and seen a tent before.

Your legacy is like the tent.

We can all see the tent, how big it is, its shape, its colour.

The tent provides lots of utility, like shelter from the elements, safety, a place to gather and be together, often as a family.

What if you only packed the shell of the tent, and forgot the structural elements at home.

Without any support to hold the tent up, without any pegs to hold it in place, the camping trip will be called off.

Did we pass any motels lately?

The pegs that hold the tent in place, and the support pieces that hold the structure up in a useful form,

are the family harmony that you need to support the legacy that you want.

Too many business founders spend so much time making the proverbial pie bigger,

without spending enough time planning for how the pie will survive,

how it will be grown or preserved after they’re gone, and

how those left behind can benefit from the pie for generations to come.

It won’t happen by itself.

The harmony in the family is one of the biggest determinators of how well the legacy will survive.

Yes, it means that you need to discuss the fact that you will die one day.

Guess what, everybody already knows that. Get over it. Your legacy depends on it

That’s all for today I hope you got something useful   we’ll see you next time