Practical Tips

Tales of love, betrayal and hate

The world is full of strife isn’t it…

If you’re not living in a part of the globe where there’s constant carnage and destruction, count your blessings.

However, not all discord happens far away. Unfortunately, a lot happens in families and in business. And when the two are connected, woof, there can be fireworks, love, betrayal and hate.

Here are a couple of examples of family dynasties that had some major issues… Both were featured on ABC’s Dynasties program.

First the Lea family of Darrell Lea Chocolate fame.

The business is now being run by the 4th generation - and is by all accounts booming. However there is a dark side and the story is one of betrayal, hurt, bitterness and dare I say it, hatred.

Here’s the cast:

Jason Lea - was the Managing Director until his death from Leukaemia in 2005.

Lael Lea - his brother.

Jason Lea Junior - Son of Jason (MD)

Jason Lea ran the business with an attitude of "the business comes first". The business feeds the family not the other way round. So all decisions that conflicted with family, the business came first, even though the family might suffer.

To this end, his brother Lael (who’s life also revolved around the business) was made redundant after 40 years!

Jason’s own son, Junior, was fired from the business.

Both broke off contact with Jason Senior - blaming him for not stepping in and stopping the "management consultants" from wielding the axe.

So when Jason was lying dying in hospital, neither brother nor son came to visit him. Jason senior had no regrets about how he treated the family. It was "just business". An attitude he’d inherited from his parents - who were workaholics when it came to the business.

Jason died alone.

Personally what I found sad was that both brother and son in their own way were products of their upbringing. Both could have said, "let’s reconcile - there’s very little time left." However, neither would make the first move, and then it was too late.

And I would suggest that this attitude will continue through the generations until someone changes.

The second example is the Ansett Family.

Sir Reginald Ansett founded Ansett Transport in the 1930’s and subsequently built up a transportation empire in Australia.

But Sir Reg was another believer of the "survival of the fittest" and gave no favours to family.

Sir Reg’s oldest son Bob, was one of the founders of Budget Rent-a-Car in Australia. And while Bob didn’t have a close relationship with his father, they did have lunch on a regular basis, where Bob would talk about his business strategies with is father.

On one fateful day, Bob revealed how he was going to challenge Avis (who had a monopoly on airport car rentals) and outlined his whole strategy to his father.

I’m sure you can guess what’s coming!

Sir Reg with full insider information - bought Avis just so he could win!

Bob took his father to court and eventually won. But he never spoke to his father again - for over 23 years till Sir Reg’s death.

And then to top it all off, Sir Reg’s widow (his second wife) refused to let any of the children from the first marriage even come to Sir Reg’s funeral!

And when Sir Reg’s wife died years later, the estate was passed into the hands of trustees - and none of the family saw a penny.

Sir Reg controlled from beyond the grave with his attitude of "business first - and I owe the family nothing after I’m gone".

So it led to me thinking…

What negative cycles are you still perpetuating in your life? What relationships do you need to heal? What has maybe been passed down to you through the generations that is really not useful to your success?

What price success and how do you measure it anyway? How does your business/work and family life/time intersect. How do you get work life balance and what’s more important, family or the business?

And finally… At the end of your life, what’s going to be more important, your relationships or your business?

So at the beginning of 2007, you may want to take some time to sit down and reflect. And plan out what you really want for your life and your business.

And if you weren’t happy with 2006, what are you going to do differently in 2007? After all the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.

Till next time…

Rashid.

P.S. What did you think of this newsletter? Was it any good? I’d love your feedback. Just hit <reply> and tell me what you think.

And while you’re at it, let me know what the top two or three topics you’d like me to write about are. If you could sit down to lunch with me, what would you ask me? Hit <reply> and let me know.

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