Wealth at the Third Generation

The older mall in Houston was about to be torn down, replaced by something new.  A men's store offered a going-out-of-business sale. When I went in, there were two salesmen, both well past 70, with a style that seemed a bit out of place in that little store.  They had the air of specialists, selling to Houston's most prosperous men over a whole career.  Polished, articulate, they were just winding down a successful lifetime of selling the very best merchandise offered anywhere.

Friendly, they shared easily that they had just retired from Houston's now-closed premier retailer.  Both had gone to work as young men, sold men's wear, served Houston's high society.  And they had ridden the store in it's downward spiral.  And that day, they were talking about that spiral, that decline.

"The old man, incredible worker, started with almost nothing - but oh, he could sell!   And customers became like family, loyal, loving, perpetual, they bought everything right there.  When the store grew, and moved, and became huge, there was the old man, still family with customers."

That was generation ONE.  Generation TWO worked a 40 hour week, depended on staff, delegated customer care and relationships.  The business slowed, but was still incredibly good.  The old man would have been concerned, though, recognizing that it was running a flat line, not growing at all.

Then came generation THREE.  Play time!  Everything was delegated, and management adopted a new style.  Not so much in 21st century language that has become familiar:  "too big to fail", but the mental set was there.  "WE are too big to fail."

But then the incredible size of the retail operation somehow distanced itself from the "customer-family", and began to come apart, to un-ravel, and finally slide into bankruptcy.

The two men reflected:  First generation builds;  second generation inherits and maintains;  third generation has no idea what they have in hand.  Then it fades away.

Farmers know that truth, retailers know it, students of nations and politics know it.

And WISE people resolve never to forget that NOTHING just happens!   Un-wise people, year after year, look around at their momentary comfort, say to themselves:  "We be US!  We deserve all this!  It will last forever."

Which are we?  Whatever we think of ourselves will inevitably play itself out, won't it?  Retailers, nations, individuals.  We can always choose which generation we will be!