In 2014, as SHIFT your Family Business came out, Steve began hearing about Bowen Family System’s Theory, and that it could be useful when working with business families and families of wealth. Curious, he searched for THE book to explain how and why this was true.Unable to find that book, he embarked instead on learning first hand, through Bowen Systems training programs. Five years later, he has written the book he sought in vain. His goal is to help enterprising family leaders and their successors develop a shared vision to sustain their wealth and legacy beyond the next generation.They say the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. In many ways teaching is a better forum for this material, because with a teacher-student relationship, there is give and take, so you can quickly adjust when you notice that you are not coming across the way you hoped. Writing a book is less forgiving, so the challenge is bigger, but I’m up for it.The other reason that now is the time for this book is that while I am by no means a BFST expert, I am at a point where I have learned quite a bit, yet I still remember what it’s like to be brand new at this. I remember what it was like to read Murray Bowen’s words and shake my head and wonder, and then think I understood, and then realize I still didn’t get it. I remember what it was like to say ‘wow’ after hearing faculty members explain things. I’ll try to share those important stories when they are useful to understanding the material.I come from a business family and married into another business family, and I’ve learned about serving business families and had my calling here. I immersed myself in courses and training programs in coaching, mediation and facilitation, and then leapt into the deep end of Bowen Family Systems Theory training in 2014 for four years. I am not afraid to offer my opinion.This is not a book by a BFST expert, and it is not a ‘how to’ book by any stretch of the imagination. If people read it and feel like they learned something useful, I will consider it a job well done.
