Is There A Better Inheritance?

photo courtesy of franthony

A lot of parents and business owners are literally obsessed by the worth of inheritance they will leave their descendants and protégés. For others, it is about how much money they will spend in making their children a man or woman, depending. And to them, the more money they spend, the more they feel like a great parent. Is it about the worth of the inheritance or about inculcating enduring life lessons? Are both mutually exclusive? Are you guilty?

Dick Resch, a January 1964 Harvard graduate and one of America’s top CEOs said, "My one big mistake in life has been providing a trust fund for my five children. I'm very comfortable paying for an education for as long as they want to study in a reputable university. However, providing additional funds so they could have a lifestyle beyond what they have achieved on their own was a mistake". A world respected leadership teacher, John Maxwell in Leadership 101 says, "If you do everything for your children, what will they do for themselves?"

By the time children finish university education, many parents would have slaved and built houses for them, put car keys in their hands, bank-rolled their weddings and sponsored expensive honeymoon getaways for them. In the course of doing these for them, some parents develop hypertension and all sorts of illnesses. Some slump and die because "A rich man leaves an inheritance for his children's children." Some even steal and do all manner of questionable deals to ‘leave an inheritance’ for their children. Are children not meant to do anything for themselves?

photo courtesy of lawyers-bulgaria

Shouldn’t an inheritance be beyond material things?  Shouldn’t an inheritance be about giving children the right values, strong unshakable character and a revelatory knowledge of the power they carry and the image of who they are?

Is it not curious that parents of old who had nothing produced the super stars of yesterday, while the parents of yesterday, the super stars, with all the education and wealth produced the children of today, the children of today that are determined to turn white black and right wrong all in the name of freedom, rights and civilisation? It would seem that it’s not all about money and material possession after all is said and done.

Let us return to the ancient landmarks and imbue the virtues of hard work, character and values, that’s a better inheritance. The world and our businesses are in dire need of these virtues.

Many thanks to Enite Young Odebala for sharing this thought

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