Acknowledgments
Throughout this book, we celebrate the power and joy of working together toward common goals. We found that our joint writing process reflected this belief. We shared our experiences and poked and prodded each other’s ideas, practices that led to a much stronger book in the process.
While this book lists just two authors, the work reflects the contributions of many people important to both of us. First, we thank our clients, whom we can’t name. But we can say that it has been a prodigious privilege to work with and learn from them. Next, we thank our team of Banyan colleagues for their feedback, which taught us so much, and for sustaining us through the writing of this book—Natalia Amaya, Lauren Ayres, Vlad Barbieri, Devin Bird, Fernanda Brasil, Sam Bruehl, Carlos Costa, Rob Davies, Nick Di Loreto, Natasha Falke, Henry Foley, Ben Francois, Lisa Frelinghuysen, Marcos Herszkowicz, Sharon McDermott, Seth McLaughlin, Marcella Mendonca, Philip Moore, Kelly Nealon, Meredith Nealon, Aline Porto, Sarah Reichert, Ana Resende, Laureen Robinson, Omar Romman, JoEllen Ross, George Stalk, Bruce Stevens, Hilla Talati, Leigh Terhaar, and Judy Lin Walsh. We can’t imagine a better team of professionals. We hope we didn’t mess up.
While everyone at Banyan contributed in some way, we want to single out our Banyan partners Marion McCollom Hampton and Steve Salley, who each “volunteered” to be internal peer reviewers and generously offered their profound expertise. Our colleague Megan Hayes tirelessly helped keep us organized and on track, and Alison Hiler spent hours providing an eagle-eyed edit of our manuscript. Our editor at Banyan, Karen Dillon, wisely, gracefully, and tirelessly guided us to deliver the best of our thinking and writing. Our champion at Harvard Business Review, Susan Francis, was a true partner from start to finish. Patricia Boyd and Jen Waring both made the book much better as a result of their keen eyes and expert touch.
Top family business professionals provided their wisdom and experience in countless ways. They include David Ager, Rodrigo Amantea, Ari Axelrod, Jorge Becerra, Gifford Booth, Brad Bulkley, Barney Corning, Jim Coutre, Diane Coutu, Sebastian Ehrensberger, Ken Foraste, Kathryn George, Jim Grubman, Ute Hagehulsmann, Fredda Herz Brown, Dennis Jaffe, Ellen Libby, Heinrich Liechtenstein, Luiz Lima, Doug Macauley, Kathryn McCarthy, Dave McCabe, Arden O’Connor, San Orr, Laird Pendleton, Jennifer Pendergast, Thiago Penido, Ben Persofsky, Michael Preston, Andrew Tanner, Daniel Van Der Vliet, and Dave Whorton. We also thank our anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback.
Josh: I thank my parents, Pam, Sol, Sara, and Art, for a lifetime of love and support; Kathryn, Melissa, Elisa, and Mark, my four extraordinary siblings; my students at Columbia Business School, especially from Family Business Management in the spring and summer of 2020, for being guinea pigs for a draft of this book; my wife Beth, for making everything possible and life wonderful; and our twins Eloise and Charlie, the lights of our lives and the greatest source of our joy.
Rob: I thank my father and mother, Gus and Ruth Ann, and in-laws, Eugene and Patricia, who all taught us invaluable lessons about raising a strong, loving family; my brother and sister, Bruce and Kathy, who are my sibling besties; our three daughters, Anna, Elena, and Sophia, who bring such joy to our life; and most of all, my wife, Catherine, for her patience, wisdom, and love.