The Two Extreme Ends of Family Business

Anthony Esposito talks about the difference between treating your family business as a safety net and treating your family business as a point of pride.

Well, I think there’s two extreme ends of having a family business. So one extreme end from a son working in a family business is that people might feel like this is a safety net, as you mentioned, I can do whatever I want, travel where I want, work where I want and no matter what, I can fall back on the business. So that’s one mentality, and that’s a mentality I don’t believe in, but it’s way too often that this mentality occurs, all across North America, all across the world. The other mentality is that, this is my family business, this is my pride and joy, this business has my name on it, my father, my mother, my grandparents, all these generations have been working years and years and years for this business, so I’m going to do everything I can to make them proud, and more. So on one end, I do believe there’s some people that use it as safety nets, but on another end and on a more positive end, the one I truly believe in, there’s some people who take this opportunity to work harder, work smarter, to work better and to do everything they can to make the family proud, but make their business flourish moving forward.