Entrepreneurs are often the honey pot for everyone who can’t do it for themselves. They are the people who make stuff happen. Because of that, they can receive extraordinary validation around the things they do. In truth, who doesn’t enjoy watching the mastery of someone crafting a new path…trailblazing a new industry. That validation can come from all sorts of quarters and all sorts of people – from employees to advisers to family members – who see themselves as part of an entrepreneur’s success.
This is a pressure cooker of a rare kind. The validation is nice, but it doesn’t often come from people who have the same skin in the game as you do. In fact, they may have no skin in the game, relying instead on your largess for their success. For them, it can become more about their safety and future – a safe future you the entrepreneur created!
With this in mind, being positively selfish and absolutely honest with yourself is the path.
Put yourself first
I have counselled family leaders so often around this simple recommendation – put yourself first. Sometimes this requires you to take a step back and remember you’re running a business. You need to make decisions that are first right for your future, rather than unduly taking on the cause of all the people who hang off your decisions.
For an entrepreneur, putting yourself first is what secures your future, gives you the freedom to explore and leaves you with a significant capital base to support your family with greater choice. It also means children who aren’t wired to carry on your business aren’t funnelled down that pathway. It means giving them the opportunity to live an exciting entrepreneurial life, wherever that takes them.
Success in succession
A great leader of a family business will typically be passionate and respected for building a good operation and executing it well. They build professional, effective teams and, key for me, is they do it all honourably. Even with this positive backdrop, succession in a family business is very difficult.
I have a simple mantra for the journey needed for the next generation to lead. Here’s what I believe an owner needs to give their children if succession is to be an option:
- Give your children a great education
- Support them to educate themselves through university, studying something they are passionate about
- Have them work in someone else’s business and make a difference
- Teach them the family business when they come back
- Support them to learn to lead (usually a fairly painful and expensive part of the journey)
- Create space for them to lead
- Teach them how to know when to leave
My best estimate is that it’s an active 20-year planned journey for a family CEO to be ready to take the mantle. There’s no passing over the fact that success in succession is a long and challenging road, even when you’re working with quality.
So, put yourself first
I called it a healthy dose of selfish because putting yourself first actually means putting your family first. Unhealthy levels of ‘selfish’ can take the form of effectively forcing children into a generational business, or it can be having kids who demand the opportunity to lead when they haven’t earned it. Healthy selfish creates a more powerful legacy because it isn’t grounded in the assumption of succession but rather the fundamentals of good business. When that happens, whether your children decide they want to lead in the future, or pick another pathway, you will have turned your business into a springboard for their future by putting yourself first to secure your future.
Photo by Radek Skrzypczak on Unsplash
