My second Faith & Family Business series considers the book of Proverbs. Though written thousands of years ago, these proverbs still have a timeliness and power today. My aim is to consider these maxims in the context of our current experience of living and working with family members. Thanks for your feedback and sharing this post with others.
Most business owners have advisors: attorneys, accountants, and sometimes even a family business consultant! But I’d like you to consider a different kind of counselor when you reflect on today’s reading.
Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. (Prov. 11:14)
The last few weeks I’ve facilitated several business-owner peer group meetings hosted at a participant’s location. Several trusted and respected leaders from across the country come together to offer feedback and advice on the host’s plans and strategies. We meet family members and interview key staff, study financials, ask probing questions, and discuss how to improve their business.
By engaging the collective wisdom of the group, the business owner gains ideas, occasional warnings, and, perhaps most important, a sense of certainty that they are on the right path. And by examining someone else’s business, the other owners - acting as true advisors - come away with new ideas, an appreciation for their own accomplishments, and rejuvenated about their business and future plans.
Who are the peers (not the paid professional advisors) you turn to for wisdom, counsel, and feedback? How have you expressed your appreciation for their guidance?
(For a similar idea about your best advisors, see the Wall Street Journal’s “Personal Board of Directors” columns, where well-known entrepreneurs and business leaders name the people who help them through key decisions in life.)