• Well educated and with a great living standard. Working in the family business. Making a living from the company’s profits; living from the income generated by the previous generation. The firm operates on automatic pilot; nothing is new since the founder created it.
• Don’t work in the family business or have no interest in it, but live from the firm’s profits. A firm with this successor mentality is poised for a slow process of decay. It is trapped in a vicious cycle based on an extractive model of wealth–a sure breeding ground for future family conflicts. It is difficult to break out from this specific firm/family-dynamic routine. However, there’s a possibility in the near future that one of the grandchildren may breath new life into the firm with breakthrough ideas and enthusiasm for taking risks and seizing opportunities.

Harsh perspectives? Perhaps, but true and all too common.

Alternatively….

• You have succeeded to the leadership of an enterprising family. Each generation has managed to re-create the company, re-invent it. Each has changed the direction of the company, opening up new and different terrain. Each has discovered and taken advantage of opportunities while using the resources, abilities and know-how from previous generations. The entrepreneurial genetic code of the firm is its hallmark. Each successor has challenged the status quo that sprang from the success of the previous generations, setting a fresh course with new leadership, new goals and new ambitions.

If yours is not an enterprising family, make the commitment to change the situation.