The chapter was titled “The Best Family Business Has One Member†as it revolved around family owned businesses and how that can create a lot of conflict. I guess the main point is how making business decisions simply because the person is a family member where you feel the need to take care of them is a huge mistake.
For example, there was a mom giving her 43 year old son a job for so many years even though he was apparently so lazy and did virtually nothing. He was essentially a freeloader in many ways which affected the business financially. Other examples were brothers fighting each other for control over a business once the dad retires.
As well, the chapter goes on to say how most people bring in family members into a business because the assumption is they are the most reliable people you can trust. Cloutier then says that when it comes to your business you can’t trust anyone. The mentality is while there are always exceptions, which he dubs as the “lucky sperm clubâ€, for the most part you can’t just blindly trust a family member to work with you effectively in a business. Everybody should be treated the same regardless of blood.
This chapter I kind of related to the most. While I never tried doing a business with a family member, I did create one before solely to help a longtime friend and it got crazy. I’m actually creating a documentary of sort about this which I think will be interesting for everyone to read as it has everything.
One of my uncle is actually very good at separating family with business. Whenever you talk to him it is always a “What can you do for me†type of attitude whenever a business proposition comes up. Heck, even for simple things that I would offer to do for free such as helping him with computer items he would get apprehensive if I didn’t gain anything financially out of it. He’s really successful too. I agree with this chapter’s advice for the most part.