Last Tuesday was the running of the Melbourne Cup – the race that stops the nation. I’m not much into horse racing. When it comes to horsepower, I’m a fan of more than one!

Three days prior to flying to Canada a few weeks ago, I injured my back. It was the most innocuous of actions, reaching for something in the shower, that made it give way. The slight reach meant my legs collapsed from underneath me as the excruciating pain tore through my lower back.

Last week, I was privileged to spend time in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada with some of the top Small & Medium Enterprise business advisors from the USA, Canada, Spain & Australia.

I knew things weren’t good when I turned up to my meeting with one of my long standing great clients. The atmosphere in the room gave it away immediately. There had been some bad news.

The noise can be deafening, yet also exhilarating. The smells can be strong, yet also subtle. The passion is usually emphatic – there’s no in between there!

Like most families, my own has plenty of stories from our past. In my mother’s case, there’s the story of how they came into contact with Pixie O’Harris, the Australian children’s author and artist, who was a contemporary of May Gibbs. My mother, to this day, still has the portrait of her as a 6 year old, painted by Pixie O’Harris, hanging in her home.

Family businesses are great at evolving. Often they start in the lounge room or the garage and move on to bigger and better things. The beauty of spending 30 years working with family businesses is that I’ve heard a lot of stories of how it has all started and what humble beginnings most of those family business owners have had.

I love working with my clients. They’re all very interesting people. They each have different characteristics about their businesses, even if they’re in the same industries. Their lives are often fascinating, even when they think they’re bland. Their journeys can be incredibly inspiring, when they just might consider the path they’ve taken is normal, perhaps even mundane.

If you’re the owner or manager of a family business, there’s no doubt you perform a number of roles, and wear many hats, in any given week. They could be:

Last week, I was in Melbourne for the 2019 Family Business Conference Asia Pacific. It was three days of learning, thinking and planning as the many speakers each provoked the delegates to consider how we should all future proof our businesses.

Here’s some of my takeaways: