How many people have put their business life ahead of their spouse or relationship to its great detriment? While we can think of a business as a the living thing, unlike a spouse or a family member, it isn’t a sentient being.
It won’t get mad at you if you don’t spend enough time with them. It won’t give you attitude. You can decide what you want the relationship with your business to be like. There are business and personal consequences to whatever decision you make about that relationship, but it is your decision to make.
Five Tips:
- Work ON your business not IN it
- Diversify
- Shift Expectations
- Balance Humanity
- Consider Consequences
This friend of mine immigrated and bought a manufacturing business. He was deeply immersed in the business and it took all of his time. You know, he had a new life in a new country and a new business and it was all very exciting for him and things were going well, but he was so busy with work that he neglected his family and especially his wife. The kids were able to settle into a new school and made make new friends, but his wife was really struggling socially and having a husband that was largely absent only made things worse.
After about 18 months, she finally confronted him. You’re married to your business, not to me, don’t you understand? He told her, I’m doing this for us, but it was the husband that didn’t understand that she needed his personal attention more than the new merc and the nice house. He was so enmeshed in the relationship with his business that his marriage suffered what turned out to be irreparable damage and they split up.
Thinking of this in terms of business continuity risk, his relationship with his wife was an external risk to the business which he was unable to manage and sadly the business won.
For more in-depth, thought-provoking discussion points and commentary on family and business, find business intel and guidance in paper, digital, video and community formats, visit https://www.transitionbook.co/storefront influenced and partly based on the Book E-Myth Revisited case study.
David Werdiger is a Familosopher, the Founder and Principal in Nathanson Pearson Family Advisory and Adjunct Professor https://www.transitionbook.co/conflict-resolution
Specialties Include:
#ConflictResolution
#CommunicationManagement
#StrategicPlanning
#SuccessionContinuity
#Governance
#LeadershipDevelopment
Familosophy (noun): the critical study of the principles and concepts of family dynamics and intergenerational issues, with a view to improving them and providing guidance in practical affairs.
origin: portmanteau of family and philosophy
#familybusiness #nextgen #familyoffice #businessowner #founders #transition #ypo #uhnw #intergenerationalwealth #wealthmanagement
