Love, family, and business

Don't know if this type of comparison has been posted before, but these are my own thoughts, you may agree or disagree.

Love can be thought of as a strategy. "I love you" is the same as "Be the best husband/wife/lover/father/mother/whatever to you". It's important to have, but it means nothing unless executed properly.

Here's an example: a father that tells his kids he loves them, but does nothing to demonstrate his love (i.e. spending time with them doing specific parent/child activities, or spending money for said activities), is just blowing hot air. Love is a strategy that can often be badly executed.

A family, much like a business, requires an investment of capital. The capital can be that of "sweat capital", or actual capital. Parents can be considered as co-founders occupying management positions. For instance, a mother who stays home to manage the family and take care of kids can be considered as the operations manager, or COO of the family, and the father who works to bring home money can be considered as the CEO. Of course, if the father only brings in money but does not participate in the day-to-day operations of the family, then he is really a silent investor and not part of the management team. In this case, if the mother so chooses, as a co-founder, the mother can choose to split from the non-performing CEO, find new investors, and potentially install a new CEO.

However, it's important to realize that a stay-at-home mom does not contribute much more (other than psychologically, perhaps) than a live-in nanny/cook/house keeper, and therefore if the CEO realizes the COO is not doing a fine enough job and wants to switch it up, he can fire the COO and hire a contractor from Philippines. While the kids may need an adjustment period with the new interim COO (or even a new full-time COO if the father so chooses), as long as the COO was chosen prudently, it will work over time. Of course, having a contractor as COO, or consultants providing expertise on COO activities, should be considered as a temporary measure only. Prolonged use of contractors/consultants at C-level management will reduce the kids' confidence in the family.

In this case, love must consist of a series of SMART goals (and for those not familiar with the terminology, SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely), and goals must have results. To illustrate: helping kids with homework is an activity, it's not a goal. The goal is (a) to enhance the kids' understanding of academic materials and (b) to improve the kids' ability to learn to deal with future issues, and the result would be measured based on the kids' academic success, and future trends of frequency of the kids needing help with homework.

Back to the example above regarding the father who says he loves his children: in this case, he is an ex-CEO who spouts the strategy of love, but provided neither sweat capital nor actual capital. This is a demonstration of the failure in the implementation of love.

A family without love is the same as a business without a strategy: doomed for eventual failure. A family with love but has lousy implementation is also likely to fail. A family with love and implements a generic approach (i.e. not targeted to the specific environment, kids, management team preferences) are also likely to fail.
When is a family considered a success? To an entrepreneur for a business, it's when the business no longer requires added investments, and generates economic value for the entrepreneur. To parents in a family, it's when the family no longer requires added investments (i.e. parents have moved from active management positions to the advisory board of directors), and provides a return to the parents (via measurable activities, such as visits from kids, or financial support for parents). Therefore, if your kids don't visit you or call you, you have failed as parents. If you're old and broke, and your kids refuse to take you in or help you financially, you have failed. If your adult kids continue to live with you and depend on your financial support, with no end in sight, you have failed.

Cliffs:
* Love is a strategy that needs proper implementation.
* A family requires investment of sweat capital and invested capital.
* CEO and COO are both necessary, but replaceable.
* Outside investors can be brought in, including silent investors.
* Contractors or consultants have their purpose and place, for tactical reasons, but should not be part of the overall strategy.
* Success of family should be measurable and not be some abstract concept (i.e. every family is a success)