The challenges encountered in growing a family business can serve as a rich field of experiences that can teach your children much about succeeding in life. Be sure not to overprotect your children and deprive them of this invaluable opportunity.
Active Knowledge Questions:
Do you believe being in business has taught you valuable life lessons? How do you propose to share these with your children?
Today’s education system can provide your children with the technical knowledge they will require to be successful in tomorrow’s world. But what will really make a difference in their lives are the experiences they gain as they grow up.
By experiences, I mean the challenges that life can throw at you at the most unexpected times – not the extra-curricular school activities that many schools provide. These are valuable but they are not the same as those you can potentially offer your children.
Being in business is challenging, no matter how successful, or unsuccessful, it may be. Both ends of that spectrum present their own unique challenges. If you have been in business for any period of time you are likely to experience both sides.
If you have led a family business for any period of time, the life lessons you will have learnt and the strengths it would have developed in you cannot be learnt in any school or lecture theatre.
With a family business, you can choose to share these experiences, challenges and lessons with your children. Or you can choose to close them out of this unique opportunity.
The decision to go into business, the management of staff, dealing with customers, cash flow, debt, marketing strategies, profitability, assessing new opportunities, working with business partners, investing, accepting failure, celebrating success, growing family wealth –these are just some of the things that you will manage in your business. Each and every one of these matters carry invaluable lessons.
The lessons that your children could gain from the experiences of your family business will greatly outweigh whatever education they may gain externally. Combine the formal education of school with the informal education of family business and you will have invested to the fullest in your children’s future welfare and success.
So how do you share these experiences? Here are some starting examples:
- Openly discuss your business in family settings so your children, from an early age, can hear about your day-to-day at work and what you have learnt.
- Do this in an honest manner but not negatively. Speak to the risks and challenges but don’t display anger, or allow hostile arguments to occur.
- Allow your children to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. Listen to them and value their contribution.
- Require your children to work in the business – in whatever manner is most appropriate. It is a family business and the entire family should support it, as it supports them.
- Speak about your dreams and ambitions, and encourage them to explore theirs.
- Report the progress and results of the business’s performance and what this means for the family.
- Discuss your visions and values to your children and why they are important in growing your business.
- Allow the children to be part of the business and to see it at work and get to know the various people working in it.
These are just a few examples of a list that could very well continue.
Exposing your children to these life lessons can be invaluable. It can enable them to establish a life for themselves leveraging off, not only their traits and capabilities, but also their parents’ life lessons.
If you adopt this approach of communicating with your family, one of the most invaluable outcomes can be the open and strong relationships that you build with your children. Ensuring regular, honest and open communication with your children will naturally create this outcome.
An entirely new level of performance.
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All the best in the success of your business,
Richard Shrapnel
