The Return

Family enterprises are often impatient with failure. A NxGn member launches a project that struggles, accepts a role before being ready or makes a poor investment decision. The family immediately begins to judge. Perhaps he lacks ability. Perhaps she is not serious. Perhaps the founder was right not to trust them.

This creates an impossible standard. The founder is remembered through the business that eventually succeeded, while the NxGn is judged through every attempt that does not. Decades of the founder’s mistakes disappear from the family story. The next generation’s mistakes become the story.

The result is predictable. Young family members learn to protect their reputation instead of testing their ability. They propose only safe ideas, avoid difficult responsibilities and wait for certainty before acting. The family then complains that they lack ambition, without seeing that it has made ambition too dangerous.

A failed attempt should never be celebrated simply because someone tried. Ownership requires discipline, preparation and accountability. But failure must be examined with intelligence. Was the decision careless, or was it reasonable based on what was known? Did the person hide the problem, or face it honestly? Did the experience produce better judgment, or only excuses?

These questions tell us more about future leadership than the failure itself.

Families usually search for successors who appear ready. They should also look for those who know how to return: return to the work after embarrassment, return to the family after disagreement, return to the table after being challenged, and return with more understanding than they had before.

The capacity to continue is not stubbornness. It is the ability to absorb an experience, accept responsibility and try again without repeating the same mistake.

Success may reveal talent. The decision to return reveals character.

W.