I started Family Business Facilitators because I was inspired by mentors and equipped by scholars.
Inspired by Mentors
Bob & Pat Kern devoted 50 years of their lives to starting and growing a successful family business. They worked well beyond traditional retirement years to guide Generac through a season of dramatic growth. When they finally sold, they could simply have relaxed and enjoyed a comfortable, carefree retirement. After all, they had earned it!
Instead, they started a family foundation focused on the needs of the rising generation. And they devoted just as much time, thought, and energy to philanthropy as they had to their business. Careful strategic thought and iterative learning shaped their grant making. This was my work for 17 years.
As I reached traditional retirement age, I reflected on all the good the Kerns had done in their later years. Wise mentor Leslie Dashew said to me, “Fred, our contribution to the world can evolve in retirement.” So how might my contribution to the world evolve?
Equipped by Scholars
That question led me to “Purpose In the Third Third of Life,” a video course created by Dr. Mark Roberts of the Fuller De Pree Center. Mark is a scholar and pastor, and also a friend. For 1,000 hours over six years, he researched how older people can live and lead with extraordinary fruitfulness. The course is one way he’s sharing what he learned. It comes with a free assessment of your core motivations, which I found very helpful.
I created Family Business Facilitators to fulfill my purpose in the third third of life: to help business families in the Midwest thrive across generations.
“Aging: An Improvisational Art Form”
In her book, Composing a Further Life: The Age of Active Wisdom, Mary Catherine Bateson writes, “Aging today has become an improvisational art form calling for imagination and willingness to learn.” I want to respond in faith to that challenge. I trust that I am not alone. Karl Barth: “In any moment we meet the call of God anew, and, hence, in every moment it is at it were ‘just setting out.’” … Here we go!
