Do you ever think about generational transfer of wealth, fiscal accountability and contribution? The statistics for generational wealth hitting the 3rd generation are dismal. Basically, the first generation busts ass and creates something great. The second generation leverages the knowledge and the experience and expands the enterprise because they grew up seeing the work ethic and ingenuity exerted by the first generation. Now comes the third generation that basically is handed over the keys without doing the work and the enterprise dies. This is the fault of the second generation teachings and the third generation entitlement mindset.
Why is this important to me?
If you have a business and you are building your net worth and want to pass it along then this is critically important to you. Do you know that 90% of lottery winners are broke in 5 years and end up in worse shape than when they started? This is even worse for ex-athletes. Athletes are good at what they do and they simply think they are good in business because they have the money. Just like athletics, creating wealth is a science that takes hard/smart work and dedication.
Anybody who says that they will go into business and succeed without the work is no different than me saying I will start for at tailback for the Dallas Cowboys next year. Both are very unrealistic but most people don’t see it that way for business. Education is critical along with hard/smart work.
The Brower Quadrant is broken down into three key parts. For the sake of time, I will define what the quadrant is and then touch on how to start living it.
1. What is the Brower Quadrant? The Brower Quadrant consists of four components. The first component is the “CORE”. This is your special talents and what drives you as a person. If you are a musician, athlete, artists or business person, the core is what defines you. The “EXPERIENCE” quadrant is all the experiences that define you and your family. This is important and needs to be captured and put into story format. Example: My grandfather came over to this country by himself when he was 9 years old on a ship across the Atlantic Ocean. Put this into perspective as most 9 year old kids today are not even allowed to be outside after 5:00 in a good neighborhood. Unfortunately, I was too young when he died and I was not able to capture the whole story to share. The experiences that shape your personality and your core need to be captured and shared. They may seem trivial to you but are important because they define what you do and how you do it.
The “CONTRIBUTION” Quadrant is next. This is where you instill an attitude of gratitude and open up your heart. I realize this is esoteric but I cannot tell you how many books I have read that say the same thing. Basically this is Emerson’s law of compensation – If you want more then give more.
The “FINANCIAL QUADRANT” is the money and wealth preservation quadrant. Most Estate planning people will simply show you how to minimize tax liability and ask you how you want to divide up the assets once you go down for the dirt nap. Lee takes a whole different approach and shows you how to continue to grow your financial position with the Family Empowered Bank and pass it from generation to generation. The Brower Quadrant is the solution to fleeting wealth across generations.
2. Why is the Brower Quadrant important? I touched on this above but it bears repeating. Each of the quadrants can be thought of as assets. Family knowledge and skill sets are typically taken for granted and lost. Most hard working business people lose their businesses to their heirs. This also creates family stress and torn relationships. I can personally attest to this. Our business consisted of extended family and the entitlement of one of the partners was absolutely despicable and it tore the family apart and ended up in court.
3. How does it work? Lee says it best in a chapter subtitle – “Family Leadership”. This is much more than estate planning. Leadership requires vision, clarity, action, communication, influence and a whole host of other attributes. Implementing the Brower Quadrant requires clarity in each quadrant with a set of action plans that are communicated and acted upon.
The Brower Quadrant is required reading for anybody interested in preserving and building wealth across generations. Lee does an excellent job of outlining what is needed and gives additional resources. I started implementing some of the things in the book and will continue to implement all of it as our family and business grows.
I hope you have found this short video summary useful. The key to any new idea is to work it into your daily routine until it becomes habit. Habits form in as little as 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is the difference between Family Leadership & Estate Planning. These two concepts are very different and Estate Planning is simply a very small subset of Family Leadership and the Brower Quadrant.
