Seth Godin recently wrote a blog post titled Natural Light. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/11/natural-light.html.

In it he describes two ways of making things. One way is to tightly control conditions. To ensure consistently of outcome, pre-process the inputs so that all raw materials are precisely the same every time.

The other way Godin calls “the path of natural light.” Take what you get. “Embrace the idea that the conditions will never be ideal, which of course makes them always ideal because the thing about natural light is that whatever it is, is.”

My experience is that raising children and integrating them into your family business is more often successful when the path taken is the way of natural light. The differences that exist between and among you, your children and other family members are part of what makes a family business succeed.

To achieve this outcome requires participation in creating a vision for the future of the family and the business under the leadership of the next generation—and willingly relinquishing control of the results.