Advance Praise from business families

Once again, Dennis Jaffe reveals a treasure trove of stories for families and advisors that demonstrates how generations can benefit from teaching and learning from one another. Dennis shares practical examples and best practices used by family enterprises, including family councils, family offices, and family foundations, strategically designed to move the family, its business and its wealth forward–generation to generation. Whether you are just beginning your journey or have multiple generations in play, this book is filled with insights, ideas and actionable next steps to turn a family enterprise into a family legacy.

—Dirk Junge

Retired Chairman, Pitcairn

Owners of family businesses with a desire for multi-generational endurance face a complex and never-ending task to pursue both commercial and familial success. Dennis Jaffe and his team have scoured the world for successful exemplars whose practices have allowed them to surpass normal experience and expectations. This is an exceptionally valuable source of inspiration and guidance for family business owners and advisers who wish to pursue and refine effective multi-generational stewardship.

—Alexander Scott

4^th generation family business owner and director, FBN-International

When I want authoritative, wise, and knowledgeable insight on family businesses, Professor Jaffe is my one-stop shopping center. The range of both knowledge and wisdom that Jaffe possesses makes him a national treasure. Borrowed from Your Grandchildren is a synthesis of this knowledge and wisdom.

—Mitzi Perdue (Mrs. Frank Perdue)

speaker, business owner, author of How to Make Your Family Business Last

We all need to give Dennis recognition and gratitude for his tremendous research and wisdom around how we can all lead our companies in a way that will leave the world a better place. I believe family business is the foundation of society around the world and is the best way to bring social change for the good due to its multi-generational nature. We all thank you for the work that will be recognized for generations to come and we are forever grateful.

—Charlie Luck

President/CEO Luck Companies

A wealth of practical insights for families and their advisors based on success factors distilled from 4^th generation and older family businesses.  Unique concept of the “generative family” to explain how families re-invent and adapt themselves and their businesses. Over 100 relatable and honest family stories to illustrate and reinforce the various concepts.

—Yuelin Yang

Deputy Group MD of IMC Industrial Group (and nephew of the founder)

No one but Dennis and his team have ever interviewed so many successful 100-year family enterprises from all over the world, and distilled their recipe for success in such an engaging and easy to read book! The real-life stories from major business families around the world, combined with the insights and best practices that Dennis brings in this well-structured book, make Borrowed from Your Grandchildren an invaluable resource for every family business in the world, be it small or large, 1st gen or 5th gen! I can't wait to get all my future grandchildren a copy of the book for their 18th birthday!

—Edouard Thijssen

CEO of Trusted Family, leading online governance platform for family businesses, 5^thgeneration family member

Dennis focuses on “generative family enterprises” around the world with common attributes. Borrowed from Your Grandchildren is an inspiring book for our Tan family, now with four generations. It is our dream and our goal to evolve into a 100-year “generative” family enterprise. This book gives us great inspiration and references in developing legacy and stewardship of our family and business.

—Sunny Tan

EVP, Accessories Group, Luen Thai Holdings Ltd.

I have been a great follower of Dennis Jaffe's work over the past 20 years. As a 4^th generation family member of a 100+-year-old business, his work has been indispensable to helping our family and many others to navigate the opportunities and challenges of surviving and thriving through five generations of ownership and beyond. Borrowed from Your Grandchildren is no different. Dennis clearly defines how other families have survived and thrived in a way that makes it possible for others to follow in their footsteps. I have always believed that to have a successful family business, one must have a good sense of humor and short-term memory, or as in Dennis's words, resilience. It is easy, in a family business, to focus on the business and neglect the family. Still, Dennis's research proves that one must focus on the family returns: Legacy, Social, Human, Financial, Capital. Without success in these areas, the business will not have the solid foundation it needs in the family to attract and retain the top talent required for the business to succeed for the second 100 years. Encouraged by Dennis's work, our family has evolved our thinking, cultivating and caring for the family far more than we ever have before.

So much of the family business research provides insights into 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd generations; however, not much research has been done for 4^th generation businesses and beyond. To have survived and thrived for four generations is remarkable and difficult. It is a fairly isolating experience, as there are so few peers available to share successes and potential pitfalls. Dennis's work provides a clear path and connects those families out there who are on the lonely journey of being a 5^th generation family business and can pave the way for those who want to get there.

—Meghan Juday

Non-Executive Vice Chair, Ideal Industries

Advance Praise from Family Advisors

As the world continues to become more interconnected and complex, generative families need to evolve and adapt together. Dennis Jaffe has written an informative book for the 21^st century. While the core pillars of family values and family constitutions remain the same, this book highlights the importance of building a resilient culture while being able to anticipate unchartered waters and emerge even stronger.

—Peter K. Scaturro

former CEO of Citigroup Global Private Bank and former CEO of US Trust Company

In this tour de force, Dennis Jaffe debunks the myth that every business family is destined to suffer the fate of “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations”. Filled with rich and engaging interviews with members of thriving multi-generational families, Jaffe and his research team expertly identify the practical secrets of success of the many families that beat the odds and create long-lasting legacies. This book is destined to become a classic for every family - and family advisors thereto - that aspires to be become a long-lived, flourishing, generative family.

—Tom McCullough

Chairman and CEO, Northwood Family Office, Co-Author, Wealth of Wisdom: The Top 50 Questions Wealthy Families Ask

An amazing resource for multi-generational business families and professionals that advise them. I love the premise of the book. Rather than focusing on all the things that can go wrong, try to learn as much as you can from the families that have already succeeded for more than 100 years. And the stories – hearing them in the words of so many families from around the world – are inspiring. Each family is clearly unique. At the same time, seeing common practices and behaviors that have helped shape so many incredible family legacies is fascinating. I couldn't put the book down!

—J. Richard Joyner

President, Tolleson Wealth Management

Transgenerational success may be elusive but Borrowed from Your Grandchildren shines a light on the fact patterns behind those families who have achieved it. Jaffe's research-based story telling is an approachable and tangible guide for families looking to leverage the lessons learned by those who went before them.

—Jim Coutré

Family office and philanthropy professional

Discover a treasure trove of insights into what forms the essence of highly enduring and generative century-old family enterprises in yet another groundbreaking research by one of the most renowned and influential family enterprise advisors of our time.

—Aik-Ping Ng

Co-Head of Family Office Advisory, Family Governance and Family Enterprise Succession, Asia Pacific, HSBC Private Banking

Dennis Jaffe's in-depth, qualitative research on what makes family enterprises pass the test of time offers valuable and actionable insights for families and the advisors that serve them. This is a must read.

—Arne Boudewyn, PhD

Head of Institute for Family Culture, Abbot Downing

Through decades of experience and painstaking research Jaffe has created the definitive work on multi-generational wealth. In this very approachable book, both families and those who advise them will find insights and practical guidance on how to successfully manage the challenges associated with significant wealth. Borrowed from Your Grandchildren is an instant classic and a significant contribution for those of us who work with ultra-affluent families.

—John Zimmerman

President, Ascent Private Capital Management of U.S. Bank

Dennis Jaffe has outdone even himself. His latest book, Borrowed from Your Grandchildren, builds on the exhaustive interviews he has conducted during his ongoing research into what makes a successful “100 year” family-owned business. Now he turns to the families themselves: what makes a successful 100-year family? He lists and explains factors that distinguish these families. I especially liked his inclusive definition of “family”. These great families were not families in the sense of being a household; they can be seen as tribes, or clans, with members dispersing but sharing common values and purpose as business and financial partners. Their definition of family is inclusive and expansive, and often extends to include their employees, key advisors, and even their home community. For anyone curious about how great families succeed this collection of family stories is an invaluable resource.

—Barbara R Hauser

Editor-in-Chief, International Family Offices Journal

A tour de force in research and narrative sociology for any professional advisor wanting to understand the DNA of successful multigenerational business families. Jaffe's work provides a colorful mosaic about how these diverse multigeneration families think about their wealth, their values and responsibilities toward their communities. Documenting in technicolor the evolution and fabric of these successful families, as Jaffe has so well done, will arm any advisor with a unique framework with how to add more value to the families we serve. The chapter on family philanthropy is both simultaneously refreshing and fascinating to read and particularly relevant today as we grapple with affluence in America – Jaffe keenly paints a clear picture, without judgment, of their understanding and moral commitment to the responsibility of giving back to society.

No one has more appreciation and understanding of the complex brew that makes for a successful legacy family than Dennis Jaffe. Granted the privilege of interviewing multiple members of families that have prospered for over 100 years, Jaffe distills the fundamentals of their success. A strong sense of mission and values coupled with robust governance and concerted development of the next generation are the factors that characterize these families. Borrowed from Your Grandchildren is an exciting, studiously researched roadmap whether your business is just starting out or has been around for generations. An equally terrific read for those of us who work with these families. Researchers always look for patterns to help make predictions. The patterns Jaffe uncovers are worth revisiting as every generation transitions into leading the family, the business, or both.

—Madeline Levine, PhD

NYT bestselling author of Ready or Not, The Price of Privilege, and Teach Your Children Well

Excellent research and review of over 100 successful family businesses to determine what makes them successful over generations; in a nonjudgmental and nonevaluative manner. Terrific guide for families who wish to beat the “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves” curse, and professionals who assist in their journey.

—Pat Soldano

President, Family Enterprise USA

Families and business have been the building blocks of successful societies around the world. They have their own cultural construction, attributes, and functionalities. Dennis and his colleagues present a wealth of experiential stories forming a treasure trove of practical examples of what denotes a generative family. The key component is stewardship. These families share with us the importance and skills necessary to be great stewards of family wealth.

Much has been written over the past 30 years about families, business, ownership, and wealth. This book enables the reader to learn through historical, organizational, and practical analysis the key components of successful families of wealth. Indeed, these families not only tell their own stories, but they highlight and underscore the relevance and importance of the research, its findings, and conclusions. A primer for all, a learning tool, a resource for reflection and wisdom.

—Laurent Roux

founder and CEO of Gallatin Wealth Management, and a partner in the Willow Street Group, a family office and independent regulated Wyoming trust company

A tour de force in research and narrative sociology for any professional advisor wanting to understand the DNA of successful multigenerational business families. Jaffe's work provides a colorful mosaic about how these diverse multigeneration families think about their wealth, their values and responsibilities towards their communities. Documenting in technicolor the evolution and fabric of these successful families, as Jaffe has so well done, will arm any advisor with a unique framework with how to add more value to the families we serve. The chapter on family philanthropy is both simultaneously refreshing and fascinating to read and particularly relevant today as we grapple with affluence in America – Jaffe keenly paints a clear picture, without judgment, of their understanding and moral commitment to the responsibility of giving back to society.

—Roy P. Kozupsky, Esq., Rimon Law

Advance Praise from Family Researchers:

The definition of opus is “a large-scale creative work”… which aptly describes Borrowed from Your Grandchildren. Dennis and his dedicated research team have captured a treasure trove of learnings from “the best of the best”. On every page, they have highlighted the resilience, the hardiness, and the entrepreneurial mindset characteristic of these generative business. Importantly, they have included ways that families can take action. This is not only a literary opus…it is a gift to the vast and significant global enterprising family community.

—Justin B. Craig

Visiting Professor of Family Enterprise, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

A landmark and a long overdue “must book” which all those working and involved with family firms should read to understand what makes family business complex and at times challenging. Introducing an innovative concept “generative family”, he firmly establishes a conceptual framework for understanding the multigenerational growth and development of family companies.

—Toshio Goto

Research professor, Japan University of Economics

Dennis Jaffe has produced a classic work of great insight and relevance not only for managers and consultants of family firms but for all students interested in the breed as it progresses across the generations. In today's climate of opportunistic executives driven by quarterly returns, a long-term orientation of evolving business stewardship represents a far more promising way forward. Dr. Jaffe shows us the path with convincing arguments and superb examples. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

—Danny Miller

Research Professor, Co-author of Managing for the Long Run: Lessons in Competitive Advantage from Great Family Businesses

Dennis Jaffe has written a thoughtful book which is eye-opening, extremely interesting, and helpful. Using his background in sociology, he takes us into the lives of wealthy families and the challenges they face in managing succession. His real-life examples will help families build successful working relationships. Highly recommended!

—Annette Lareau

Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania

From our earliest days in our own families, we learn from stories, which provide a link to our past and help us develop a vision for our future. In this book, Dennis Jaffe has curated an exceptional collection of stories to deepen knowledge of the complexities, challenges, and triumphs of multi-generational family enterprises.

—Patricia M. Angus, Esq.

CEO, Angus Advisory Group LLC; Adjunct Professor and founder, Family Business Program, Faculty Director, Enterprising Families Executive Education, Columbia Business School

Creating thriving multi-generational business families is no easy feat. This engaging book gives you practical know-how plus key insights on how to achieve this goal— backed by Dr. Dennis Jaffe interviews with business families globally in addition to his decades of advisory experience working in the field. This is a must read for anyone attempting to take on such a daunting, yet worthy goal.

—Florence Tsai

Author of Phoenix Rising—Leadership + Innovation in the New Economy and Founder of Centerprising

In Borrowed from Your Grandchildren Dennis Jaffe, one of the world's leading family business advisors, presents unique insights into how some families manage to combine family and business, typically seen as divergent social systems, into organizations that create long-term value for both the families in control and the stakeholders they engage with. The book represents an extremely rich source of original examples, reflections, and conceptual models that make the book fascinating to read. At the same time, the book represents a source of inspiration as you design your own path, one that will lead you toward creating your own long-lasting family enterprise.

—Thomas Zellweger

Professor of Management, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

Corporate governance is different when there is a family business, because the owners are related and share certain values. Borrowed from Your Grandchildren offers an overview of family business governance, and the potential benefits that derive from the differences, in families that share long-term ownership of large enterprises. These business families use governance practices not only to create a strong and professional business, but also to serve their social and family agendas. The experience of these families shows that these two agendas can work in harmony.

—Professor Martin Hilb, PhD

Chairman of the Board Foundation and its International Center for Corporate Governance

Congratulations to Dr Dennis Jaffe for this wise reflection of his life-long experience advising and researching enduring, generative families. Dennis shows how these families successfully evolve and transition from family business to business family, by building in mechanisms for their family tribes to learn and govern together, and to build resilience amid different disruptions. Drawing on wisdom of global business family leaders, Dennis ends each chapter with practical tools families and their advisors can use to leap forward and achieve this multi-generational endeavor. Thoughts covered in this book are highly consistent with my experience and research, and I highly recommend this book to families who want to break the curse of “wealth doesn't go beyond three generations.”

—Professor Roger King

Founder, HKUST Tanoto Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies

Rice paddy to rice paddy, clogs to clogs, shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves—all in three generations. These proverbs are the ways, in various cultures, that the three-generation cycle of families' failures to prosper and their tendency to decay are described. There are many other such proverbs. Each culture I know of has one. In fact, this proverb is the only one I have ever discovered that is universal culturally. I have spent this lifetime, literally since I was four and first heard my mother state the shirtsleeves form of the proverb, asking myself two questions every day. Why should there be this sad outcome for a family? And what might a family do to avoid its dictate and flourish for at least three more generations? While I have worked hard to find answers to these conundrums, until now I had only my experiences, those of a few colleagues, and some thoughtful academic treatises to use to try to form answers.

Now with the advent of Dennis Jaffe's book, Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises, I have solid data to affirm that such long-term flourishing by a family is possible. Dennis's in-depth interviews provide the first solid evidence I know of that explains how families that stay together over one hundred years evolve to include their third, fourth, fifth, even in a very few cases their sixth generations, and continue to prosper. Dennis's willingness and that of his co-researchers to go deep into such families' evolutions is a major contribution to our field, a field of professional practice in which we seek to help families thrive, a field in which we seek to help those families, whose vision and mission, their highest intention, is to avoid the proverb's sad prediction. In practical terms, we seek to help them avoid being added to the list of families whose stories end with the outcome the proverb foretells. To say that our families and those we serve will be positively influenced by this book's findings and by the family stories it recounts is to understate the book's significance. In my opinion, this book will profoundly change a family's outcome provided the family members commit to avoiding the proverb as their highest mutual intention and utilize the practices of successful families the book describes to materialize that intention. Should a family do these two things—commit to avoiding the proverb and use the practices outlined in this book—it can substantively increase its odds of flourishing for at least another three generations. Yes, this book is that significant a contribution to a family knowing how to prosper.

This foreword is not a book review. It is rather a way for readers to connect with the salient points in the book they are about to read. It should seek to offer the reader some main points to consider that will carry him or her into its depth. Which among Dennis Jaffe's principal findings might I then bring to your attention? Which of them point toward your deeper appreciation of how your family and any family you advise might succeed in attaining its one hundredth birthday? A one hundredth birthday celebration with nearly all of its possible members still in relation with one another, still deeply committed to the family thriving, and renewing their commitment to one another to working toward helping the family achieve another one hundred years of success?

First, in my experience, a family that seeks to become a one-hundred-year flourishing family and, as Dennis's research suggests, become a generative family almost always intuits that becoming a family of affinity is its deepest spiritual purpose. While this concept has many elements, perhaps the most succinct way of describing this intuition and the ethic it engenders and enables is that its members are committed entirely to the enhancement of the individual journey of happiness of each family member over the entirety of each family member's lifetime toward the goal of the entire family prospering. This is the family's generative dream, and its practices reflect this way of knowing how to help the family system enable family flourishing. Or if you like, the family is committed to every family member's individual boat rising so that the whole family fleet becomes a powerful armada for its long-term flourishing. In this way, the family becomes a family system that can meet and endure all the storms it will face as it seeks to attain its one hundredth birthday and go on being generative by offering the same intuition for its members over the next one hundred years. Families of affinity are much too rare. But Dennis's book proves they exist and can be emulated.

A family of affinity, as Dennis describes, learns from its second generation on that to have future generations continue the family's journey to flourish, become generative, and avoid the proverb's dictate, the family must create family systems that are positively attractive. Why? Because the family knows this is the only path to assure that future generations will be attracted to join. Otherwise the family will disappear. The realization by the second-generation family members that they must create such a positively attracting family system and the actions these family members then take to make this realization actionable are the moments when Dennis's one-hundred-year families are born.

What intuition does a generative family discover and awaken in itself that in turn leads family members to dream of becoming and being a flourishing family? There are many, and the most important is the family's realization that the word “wealth,” in the context of the family, means the well-being of each family member and of the whole family, not exclusively the success of the family's financial means. In this one major awakening lies so much of the family's future prosperity, its generativity. With this awareness, the family gradually comes to know that it consists of multiple capitals, the most important of which are qualitative. The family discovers that growing its qualitative capitals, supported by its quantitative capital, never led by it, is the key to future family flourishing. It is with this awakening and the awareness that follows that the family becomes generative and truly begins its long-term journey toward its members' and its future-generation members' happiness. The family is now on the path to becoming a family of affinity with all of its rewards for human happiness.

These qualitative capitals include the following:

• Human capital: Are all family members thriving?
• Intellectual capital: Is the family a learning system that is constantly growing its individual and communal learning? Are its members sharing what they are learning so the capacity of the whole family to meet the challenges it will face is enhanced?
• Social capital (or to use Dennis's term, relational capital): Is the family capable of making extremely good strategic joint decisions, of governing itself? Is the family working toward cultivating a long-term ability to avoid the following:
  • Internal sequestration: Death by poor social relations with one another and its insularity (often not leading to fission and death by heat but far more often death by inertia in the family members' relations with one another and death by cold).
  • External sequestration: A failure to meet attacks on itself from the outside world. Are its social relationships creating fusion? That is, are family relationships leading energetically to positive growth so that 1+1=3? Are those same relationships leading to positive connections through philanthropy with nonfamily members?
• Spiritual capital: The family's ability to form a common generative vision that seeks to enable the long-term flourishing of each individual and of itself; to do together the seven-generation generative thinking that all successful families learn to do; and to offer a vision and set of practices that are positively attracting to future family members so they will join the family's long-term journey.

As I am sure you can feel and see, it's these four qualitative capitals and their constant positive development and evolution that lie at the core of a successful family journey. They are what Dennis's research found and describes—and what my life experience affirms. The growth of these capitals is the key to these families flourishing. These capitals and their evolution will determine whether a family becomes a family of affinity.

The awakening of the second generation to this deep awareness leads to its creating and evolving a system of joint decision-making, grounded in consistently growing each of these capitals, toward each and all family members' boats rising, that will become the system that is positively attracting to the next two generations of potential family members. This awakening will enable the family to become the thriving generative family Dennis discovers and defines.

Of course, such families continue to grow, develop, and evolve their quantitative capital, their ventures, whether as businesses and/or as financial enterprises. What these families know—and what families falling to the proverb don't seem to discover—is that their efforts to grow their quantitative capital must be designed to support their having the means to enable them to grow their far more important long-term capitals, their qualitative capitals. By understanding this relationship between their qualitative and quantitative capitals, these families achieve what I consider the great knowing that leads to, and that Dennis's research shows and affirms, their generativity and flourishing, their long-term success, their growth of agile, awake, and aware human beings able to participate in the great cooperative journey to grow a flourishing family while fully becoming whoever they are meant to be as individuals.

I now turn to what these historically successful families of affinity discover as important principles to be integrated into their shared vision. The learnings these principles engender then become practices the families utilize as their journeys unfold.

First, as Nassim Nicholas Talib writes in his book Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, they become family systems that are ever more resilient, ever more agile, all toward meeting and overcoming the internal and external sequestration events that will attack their systems. They learn how to grow their systems beyond resilience to immense capacities for endurance against all the odds.

Second, they grow stewards, family champions, and family elder wisdom keepers/way showers who lead the work of growing a family of affinity. They discover among themselves family members who espouse seven-generation visioning and awareness and enable such family members to lead their process. They seek family leaders who understand that the wealth of the family lies in the well-being of each and all of its members, leaders who seek to keep every family member's boat rising.

Third, they construct conservative generative structures that are antifragile. These structures are then able to assist in the families' endurance as they enable joint decision-making systems to develop that permit very long-term strategic planning and the tactical execution of those plans over a long-time horizon. These joint decision-making systems encourage, as Cicero tells the story, old men to plant trees so their grandchildren will have shade. These systems encourage copper beech trees, which need 150 years to mature, to be planted today, as there is no time to waste to get them started growing. Yes, these are systems that encourage metaphors and stories like these two for how families think and encourage their members to consider the family's potential in the long term and generatively imagine future generations flourishing.

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, these families understand that if their families are to stay the course and have third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation members join in, they must enable these future-generation members to decide to join in. What do they know that so few families seem to know, and what does this knowing require? They know that in a lifetime each of us, likely only three or four times, makes an existential decision, a decision in which our lives and our happiness are at risk, to decide to join one group instead of another. These families—especially the elders of these families—know what wise elders of human communities have always known: human beings cannot live alone. We live in communities. We are not hermits. However, communities require that we give up personal freedom to help the other members of the community in the hope they will help us. This seems clear. But how often in a lifetime do we voluntarily give up freedom? It is the rarest of moments. We know the risks of doing so, and we almost never take the plunge. Families that flourish, that are generative, know that their futures depend on their future members making a positive decision to join in, and they know how difficult that decision will be for them. Thus, they seek to create systems that are positively attracting to future generations to join in. They know that their families' futures depend on at least some of their rising generation members taking the existential plunge to give up freedom to join in.

Why might rising generation members take this plunge in a particular family? Because they find the invitation to join the family journey an invitation in which they perceive that the family's generative vision, the family's spiritual self, its core beliefs and virtues are all working together to offer them more personal freedom to discover and become themselves, more opportunity to bring their unique selves to life than any other group competing for them to join. These rising generation family members decide to give up freedom to gain freedom. Only the most positively attracting family system, one devoted to the growth and development of rising generation members, can offer such invitations with any hope of such members signing on. This great knowing and the actions to make these critical invitations real are, I believe, at the heart of why such a family is generative and long-lived and why most families aren't. Such a family knows it has succeeded when its rising generation members form new horizontal social compacts committed to these principles and committed to offering a future rising generation the same invitation their wise elders offered them. The formation of each rising generation's new horizontal social compact, committed to each of the above principles and particularly to the family system being positively attracting to new members, with its promise that giving up freedom will enable the gaining of freedom, is the evidence that the family has the continuing capacity for endurance and the ability to continue to flourish and be generative for another two generations.

So we have Dennis to thank for providing us with the research that confirms our intuitions about why a family flourishes, why it is able to be generative for many generations, and how it does this. His gift of this book offers the proof we need that the proverb's dictate need not be predictive. The stories of the families he profiles assure us that if we learn from their stories, our family need not be another family where the proverb comes true. It is my hope that your family and those you guide as their advisors will take to heart Dennis's great findings, act on them accordingly, become a family of affinity, and flourish for many generations.

May your journeys be blessed. May you and each of your family members flourish and achieve happiness. May your family flourish and be generative.