The most beautiful thing about the people that I admire, who choose to build a legacy, is that I can see how difficult it is to resist the ‘now’, the ‘quick’, and the ‘must-have ’.
The whole of society tells us to get it now; the whole of society tells us we can have it quickly, and the whole of society says that we must have those things in that time frame.
So few people understand the compounding nature of the long term and are prepared to build something beyond themselves.
I read the other day that 70% of German businesses are family-owned, whereas only 30% of UK businesses are family-owned.
Seems to me we sold our soul to the corporates in all aspects of business.
Certainly our tax system promotes that because income tax is so much higher than capital gains tax (I'm not political, and I don't know the answer, but I understand incentives).
If you build a business, the only way to get the money out of it without paying large degrees of income tax or capital gains tax, and the only way to get the capital gains tax, is to sell it, and if the only people to sell it to are American pension funds, then the only people that will buy it.
The alternative is not to get the large lump sum of money, but to build something that outlasts what you started to do and to be something great.
To try and retain it within a family ownership, you understand the values of what you've built and the things that got you there, and then to move it from generation to generation.
Some of the people that I admired the most were able to do that, or are able to do that.
The problem is that all of your senses and all of your input tell you to do the other thing.
7% a year doubles in 10 years; 10% a year doubles in 7.
They are magic numbers if you can be bothered to wait.
Blog Post Number - 4692