Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations is the American version of a Lancashire proverb, “There are only three generations between a traffic jam and a traffic jam.
Many have credited Andrew Carnegie, the famous Scottish industrialist of the 19th century, with bringing the message of the proverb to America. Research shows that the adage is ancient and not unique to any one country or culture. In Italian it is “dalle stalle alle stelle alle stalls” (“from stalls to stars and stalls”). The Spanish say, “who does not have it, does it; and who has it, disgraces it” (“who does not have it, does it, and who has it, uses it badly”). Even non-Western cultures, including Chinese, have a similar proverb, “from rice to rice.” From shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves is a proverb that describes the natural tendency of human behavior in terms of creating long-term families as financial failures.
The theory of the proverb is that the first generation begins in a rice field, which means that two people with an affinity for each other came together and worked from below to create a financial fortune. The original generation generally accumulates their wealth without making significant changes to their values, customs, or lifestyle. The second generation moves to the city, adopts the latest fashions, sponsors the opera, runs large organizations, and fortunes stabilize. The third generation, with no experience in creating or maintaining wealth, consumes financial fortune and the fourth generation goes back to the rice fields. This is the classic formulation of the shirt sleeve proverb, which remains as true today as it has proven to be throughout documented human history.
When considering long-term legacy planning, what is often called seventh-generation thinking comes into play. The thinking of the seventh generation can be illustrated by an antidote from an elder of the Iroquois tribe, who begins the tribal council meeting by saying:
“Let’s begin our work here today in the hope that the decisions we make will be respected by our tribal members seven generations from now.”
James E. Hughes, Jr., an attorney, author, and multigenerational family advisor, defines a family as two or more people who, either by genetic lineage or by affinity ties, consider themselves related to each other. The core of his philosophy is the belief that a family that sees itself united not only by blood but by affinity and acts from that philosophical foundation has the best chance of successfully enhancing the individual growth and development of its members and , therefore, to dynamically preserve the family as a whole for at least five generations. An affinity family maintains open systems that welcome new members, giving the family a better chance of survival. These outsiders represent the new energy the family needs to overcome what it will lose due to wear and tear.
Keep in mind that attorney Hughes suggests that relying solely on the biological components of a family will lead to the wear and tear and weakening of the family unit and wealth over time. Creating an open source family unit that enthusiastically embraces new members through marriage and other ties of affinity is vital. When counting the assets of a family, they are represented by the individual members of the family of affinity:
• The human capital of the family
• The intellectual capital of the family
• The financial capital of the family
• The social capital of the family
A long-term, seventh-generation thinking family will have a 100-year plan to manage and capitalize on the family’s core assets listed above.
If you feel that your family is a family of affinity:
Have you developed a written Family Mission Statement as a guiding expression of your family’s vision, values, and goals? Y
Have you embraced 7th generation thinking and started working on a 100-year plan?