Hey Reader,
Your family is in business whether you realize it or not. You have two actually.
Last week I covered the first kind – creating competent, confident, connected adults.
If you missed it, you can read it here.
Today we’ll be covering the other, the wealth generation engine that creates opportunities for each subsequent generation.
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Your Empire
Your secondary responsibility to your family is to create some form of sustainable wealth generation. This isn’t to selfishly serve you in retirement, or to create an inheritance (more on that in a future email).
This is a vehicle to create opportunities for your children.
When people think of generational wealth, they mistakenly believe there has to be some sort of “big wealth event” or a large business.
These are definitely effective ways to create copious amounts of capital. But one crucial factor is left out…
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Multigenerational Project
More often than not, these are multi-generational projects. They may have been started by one individual in the current generation, but what lead up to it often goes unsaid.
Most of the time its generation 2 or 3 that has this moment, and the first lays the foundational work.
Let’s use Donald Trump as an example. While he’s the current president and real estate tycoon, had the seeds of his empire planted by his grandfather Frederick, who owned a 7 room building and 5 vacant lots, which he’d worked hard & taken risks for.
Trumps father, Fred, then leveraged these to start a building company, working up to owning rent controlled apartments.
Trump then used the flexibility & freedom these brought to spend more time networking, building a profile and doing high-level deals.
“A small loan of 1 million dollars.” doesn’t do any justice to the background and opportunities afforded to his by his forefathers. 3 intentional generations was all it took to put a family in a position to shape the world.
You can be the “Frederick” of your family – and still have your children aspire to and achieve great things. He didn’t have a huge empire, but he did work hard and achieved a modest level of wealth as a foundation, which his son built on top of.
And now the opportunities are more accessible than ever. You can download an app and own fractional shares in some of the largest companies in the world in a matter of minutes. You can build influence and network with people from all over the world..while you sit on the couch.
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Building Your Vehicle
The vehicle you build can be whatever you like, and what you are capable of. It doesn’t have to be an entrepreneurial venture, but we’ll start there.
You can start something in the evenings to bring in extra revenue, it may be writing online, it could be freelancing, or fixing up furniture, it’s not really important what it is. What is, is that is able to create extra income, and that is is scalable.
As your children see you doing this, it provides an opportunity to teach them skills, and have them help out. Eventually they will be capable of running elements of it on their own or contributing to the overall output of the enterprise.
Along the way you may scale it with employees, contractors, or automations and it could very well evolve to become your main source of income.
But that isn’t what’s important in this context. What is, is that it’s creating a launch point for your children. The skills they learn and channels they are able to sell through serves as a potential income source for them, even at a young age.
While the old money families insist on sending their children away to garner new skills for around 3 years, and you’re no exception, you will still have built foundational skills and opportunities for your children through this vehicle.
You’ll also likely be building a network, but more on that later.
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Asset Accumulation
Lets say you have a job where you’re making sufficient income, or you’re unwilling to start a side venture for any number of reasons. There’s still no excuse not to build your family empire, you just have to adapt your approach.
For those of modest means, the markets are now more accessible than ever – and while certain things may seem more out of reach (like a 7 room building in New York), the modern world presents new opportunities, you just have to be wired to spot them.
If you’re of greater means and are able to avoid lifestyle inflation, then your funds can be poured into stocks, real estate opportunities, private investing, small business acquisition or intellectual property.
Any of these, regardless of your means require some level of skill, barring buying some index funds regularly, so you must do what suits you, your knowledge, skills, and network.
Over time, as you invest your excess capital into these assets, the funds will inevitably accumulate tot he point where more opportunities will present themselves.
For example, you may go from buying index funds for years to buying your first real estate deal, leveraging your skills as a handyman to renovate, refix and flip, with the help of your family. Cementing a generational asset that could provide an income for your family for 100 years or more.
You could even team up with your adult children to build a substantial portfolio of the course of years.
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Social Capital
This is something every man should be building regardless of what position he finds himself in.
You can take every financial asset a billionaire has and he will eb able to rebuild his life in a matter of weeks by leveraging his network, influence and reputation.
The best part is that it’s free to do this and easier than ever.
It starts with your immediate circle and the people around you, btu to truly grow it, you must leverage whatever is at your disposal.
That could mean joining a local club (golf is a classic), or finding your way into a social club. (Sticking with the Trump example, he join “Le Club” after a couple of attempts and the people he met there helped build his empire)
Social media is also a powerful too to build your influence and network. With a concerted effort, you can connect with people that have hundreds of thousands of followers, while building the same level of influence for yourself.
Social capital is at the core of fiscal wealth generation and opportunities. The people you meet and influence you build not only serve as the fuel for your fiscal engine, but also as a means to jump start your children in life. From college referrals, to references for jobs to employment opportunities..or even a chance to gain clients for a business.
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Retirement?
Most people are dreaming of one day retiring so they can finally enjoy their life.
Bad news is that by the time most get there, life’s mostly happened. This is your life, and you’re living it – the journey is the enjoyable part.
In fact, people that go to retirement homes have a shorter lifespan and higher rates of dementia than those that stay with family.
If your ambition is to forge your family into a dynasty, then retirement looks a lot different. In short, your work simply does not stop, it changes in nature.
You will go from being a provider to building alongside your children, to eventually becoming the first elder (along with your wife) of your family when you pass the patriarchal torch over.
You will still continue to shepherd the family assets, work on the family sanctuary, help with grandchildren and projects they and your kids work on.
This is not only fulfilling in and of itself, it keeps your mind sharp, and will fill you with purpose.
Every study I’ve ever seen that reveals some secret to living longer (outside fo the weirdos that make this their entire life) miss one crucial thing..
Its not sleeping 6.5 hours, or micro naps, or olive oil, or 153 supplements taken at 12:34am.
Its fulfillment and family. When a man has purpose and meaning, he has life.
The people that live to 102 and smoked everyday since they were 8 are more often than not surrounded by family, and still working in some capacity.
This is the secret to a long life – never retire.
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Connection
Most families in the modern era remain disconnected. Institutions, media, and a survival instinct get in the way of the most important connection to people – family bonds.
As a patriarch of your dynasty, you must take deliberate action to fortify your family unity.
ALL families are founded on this one thing, without it, all else will crumble.
This is why you see wealthy families with kids that don’t want to know them. Or inheritances squandered.
A strong connection to family will cement your family and cause cooperation that most people (that don’t have generational wealth) will deny is possible.
Look at most major world wide brand names, you may be surprised to know that they were founded and are likely run by families.
Walmart, Ford, Mars, L’Oréal, Comcast. Household names built and/or run by families.
Business and family DO mix, if you lead them properly.
With this level of connection it’s even possible for a family of lesser means to pool funds to unlock opportunities that are otherwise inaccessible.
As I covered in the previous email, it all stems from your leadership,
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So go forth and build your vehicle. Be the CEO of your family enterprise.
You are the Founding Father.
Yours,
​Ben Black
​Dynastus.com | DynastyFoundry.com​
