Learning the Family Values

Margaret-Jean Mannix talks about how family values are successfully passed through the generations.

My mother was my mentor, even though my parents were divorced by the time I was entering the businesses. So I think she paid a lot of attention when I was growing up to what I was being exposed to, in her business, she has her own businesses and so I was always a part of that. They were entrepreneurs working at home so I was a part of the phone, accounting, all those kind of pieces and I think that’s a really critical piece for people to understand, is, I don’t think you can start early enough in indoctrinating the values, cause your children are watching you anyway, they know what your imparting and so to be really conscious about it is critical, and to be influential about that and help create environments where they’re getting it kind of by osmosis, I think. I’ve been incredibly fortunate from a mentorship perspective because my grandfather’s right hand woman, she ran really his personal office and home and everything towards the end of his life. When he passed away, she identified herself with someone who wanted to work with the fourth generation, in grooming them and working with them and helping them with their careers and their lives. So that was a very special gift, because it’s almost as though some of the values, our parents were so busy working, they didn’t necessarily have the time to pass on the values, so we actually, I feel we, the fourth generation, or quite a few of us, who had the good fortune of her mentorship. And for me, it’s almost like the values of my grandfather skipped a generation to come down to us directly because of her involvement.