The Business of Family - Episodes Tagged with “Storytelling”

Chris Powers - How Big Of An Impact Do You Want To Have?

Mike Boyd — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 19:30:00 +1000

Chris Powers is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Fort Capital and the host of The FORT podcast. Chris is a serial entrepreneur with more than 16 years of real estate development and investment experience. Since founding Fort Capital, the company has invested over $1.4B in Class B industrial, commercial, multifamily, student housing, and residential and land development projects.

His drive to always remain curious, desire to connect with and learn from others led Chris to start his podcast, The FORT. In the FORT, Chris talks with leaders of businesses across real estate and a variety of industries and dives deep into ideas and topics that are not regularly discussed. Chris covers each guest's story and explores in detail the critical moments that led to success, failure, growth, and confidence. He has successfully published over 200 podcast episodes.

Standout Quotes:

"You only are going to be on this earth one time, you really are not coming back again after the first time; let's make the most of it" - [Chris]
"Everything that you were mad at your parents for when you were a kid, is everything you respect them for when you're an adult" - [Chris]
"Money never mattered to my dad, being content and serving others did" - [Chris]
"I think it's a very special thing in life to really want to be good at something" - [Chris]
"If you're a parent and you actually can't give your kids the things they want, it makes it almost easy; what's tough is when you can give them what they want and you choose not to" - [Chris]
"How can you expect someone that grew up with everything easy and given to them, to ever have that burning desire" - [Chris]
"Kids don't learn by words, they learn by actions, so I can say everything I want to my kids but they're going to be watching what I'm doing" - [Chris]
"You don't keep families together, particularly with the amplification of wealth, if you're not intentionally practicing the values" - [Mike]
"We're living in a really cool generation where I think we're going to be able to tell our stories to our kids like nobody's been ever been able to do it before" - [Chris]
"There's just very few people that matter in this world that you remember because of how much money they had, it's really about what they did… you will be defined by how much people remember you" - [Chris]
"The majority of businesses that do really well hit singles and doubles over and over"
"When's enough enough?... it depends on how big of an impact you want to have" - [Chris]
The first great business decision you're going to make is who you marry" - [Warren Buffet, Chris]
"There's things in life that are either giving us energy or taking away energy" - [Chris]

Key Takeaways:

Chris Powers is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Fort Capital. He is also the host of the podcast, "The FORT", as well as a serial entrepreneur with over 16 years of experience in Real Estate Development and Investment Experience. Chris is a first-generation entrepreneur with stories that shaped him down to his relationship with his children.
Chris's dad was a lawyer who valued education, however, after 13 years of being a lawyer, He decided to become a doctor. With two kids and a wife at home, He left law and started medical school at the age of 39 which took place over 8 years with a financial toll on the family. The experience during those years created the foundation for the impression Chris has about money, feeling fortunate to have been more deprived of things than his peers. Chris also learned the importance of doing things in life that give fulfillment.
Because of the experience of not having money over those years, Chris became an entrepreneur at a young age to get the money he needed. However, Chris has a fear that his success allows him to skip the chances to deprive his kids of the things they should be deprived of.
Following the passing of his dad, Chris witnessed a turnout at the funeral and stories that depicted the level of impact people felt while his dad was alive. Although it was a traumatic unexpected event, Chris felt equipped at the time to take the reins in the family because his father had trusted him very early on to do things. This taught Chris that there's a level of transparency that is healthy with children, for them to start learning early on how the family operates.
"If you study people who are extremely successful in life endeavors, there is a common thread among them where they were in a position to really want something while growing up". This has made Chris understand that it is hard but necessary to deprive kids of certain things even when they can be gotten. He is trying to teach his kids not to be overly reliant on his wealth but to forge their path. Additionally, having the nature to treat people very well even from childhood is a good foundation to build on.
Raising great children amidst wealth is a challenge, and the importance of transparency cannot be overemphasised, especially when it comes to treating people well, or other issues affecting family values. This is important to note because kids learn by watching the actions of their parents, hence the teaching values has to be transparently done through actions. This transparency also translates to work, as Chris tries to make his work fun and appealing to his kids rather than intimidating.
Chris has been very intentional about leaving content for his children to learn from, especially in recordings and this is one of the motivations for his podcast, "The FORT".
Currently, Chris is working to create intentional family traditions that build the family experience. The first of these is an annual talk recorded and kept to give the kids later in life.
Starting Fort Capital: While in school, Chris wasn't particularly trying to make a lot of money but came across someone in Real Estate who helped him learn and start Real Estate deals which resulted in his company "Fort Capital". It is a Real Estate private equity company based in Fort Worth Texas. It is focused on buying Class B industrial and multi-tenant properties, functioning as value-add buyers. As time goes by the desire to sell lessens because there have been great liquidity events from sales and holding cash from sales isn't very impactful anymore. This is beneficial especially for newcomers because Real Estate is a great tax tool.
It is easy to get overwhelmed by other companies that seem to be doing immensely well, and be tempted to keep taking high chances. However, the majority of businesses succeed by surviving and growing incrementally.
To be an entrepreneur you need someone supportive even when things aren't so great. Chris recalls how selfless his mum must have been to be supportive of his father's unexpected decision to study medicine. This played a major role in the success of his dad just like his wife plays to get him to where he is today.
Concerning his view on generational wealth, Chris believes the easy route for a lot of folks with money is to let their kids assume that it's all going to be theirs, as soon as they believe it, whether it's true or not it can alter their lives. He is yet to decide on what he will leave for his kids but currently focuses on shaping their mindset on money. "I want my kids to have something but I want them to earn it and I don't want them to live a life dependent on it; not because I think it would be bad for them to have money but I think it would rob them the joy of living a fulfilled life"
From Chris to his kids: The way they will be judged when they leave earth is by the impact they've had on others. For them to live a fulfilled life, they need to think each day, "if it was all over tomorrow, what did I leave the world"? An exercise for listeners concerning this is "If you were at your 80th birthday party, write down what you would expect people you care about to say to you". You've got one shot, make it count.

Episode Timeline:

[00:49] Introducing today's guest, Chris Powers.
[02:25] Chris describes inspiring life lessons from his dad.
[12:24] How did you deal with the loss of your father?
[16:30] How do you create balance with depriving your kids of some things for them to learn key values?
[28:45] Are you being intentional about creating lessons for your kids to come across one day?
[33:39] Do you have any intentional family traditions to build rituals around the family experience?
[35:50] Chris shares his journey to success in his business.
[45:33] Was there a breakthrough point where you knew you could breathe?
[48:58] What did you learn from your mother and wife in the role they play to support the family?
[53:04] Have you started to think about Generational wealth?
[55:53] A letter from Chris to his kids

For more episodes go to
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Special Guest: Chris Powers.

Vicki TenHaken - Lessons from Century Club Companies [The Business of Family]

Mike Boyd — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 19:00:00 +1000

This week's guest is Professor Vicki TenHakan, a college professor in management at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, a former business executive at Herman Miller and GE, a researcher of corporate longevity and the author of the excellent book; Lessons from Century Club Companies: Managing for Long-Term Success, a captivating book that details the lessons learned from companies that have endured for at least 100 years.

Key Takeaways

The similarities and differences in culture and corporate longevity in American and Japanese century club companies
The 5 major management practices in both the United States and Japan’s old companies
Why it is important to take time to honor the past of the company while also embracing changes that are needed to prosper
The prevalence of family-owned businesses in century club companies
Understanding the role that strength in relationships play in stewarding businesses for over a century
Learning that growth isn’t everything in company longevity
Why storytelling is key in century club companies and the development of the next generation leaders

Standout Quotes

“What I hoped to achieve was to uncover some management practices…that I would be able to not only share with my students to not only help them be more successful in their future careers but also for business leaders to be able to use.” - Vicki Tenhaken [3:35]
“I saw what the lack of business success did to a community. I was really hoping that the future business leaders or current leaders would be able to benefit from some knowledge on these old companies on how they were able to survive and thrive through many economic disasters and other crisis over the decades and even the century.” - Vicki Tenhaken [4:08]
“There’s no formula for it. The one thing that I did find out when talking to many of these old companies is that they knew when they needed to change. They kept on top of what was going on in the external environment… They made sure everyone in their company had a role in staying in touch with customers, suppliers, or other business leaders in the community.” - Vicki Tenhaken [11:26]
"The strength of relationships is what almost every century club company said helped them make it through the tough times. They all had stories of crisis that they went through and it was relationships whether with employees, business partners, or community that they said really made the difference in terms of how they were able to not just survive the various crisis but actually prosper in the long run." .” - Vicki Tenhaken [19:11]
"In business as in life, relationships are what matter most." - Vicki Tenhaken [46:51]

Episode Timeline

[1:14] How Vicki became interested in corporate longevity
[3:25] What Vicki hoped to achieve when embarking into research and what surprised her
[6:12] The common management practices seen in old companies in both United States and Japan
[10:26] What Vicki believes contributes to century club companies surviving for so long
[13:41] Family-owned businesses role in companies that are over a hundred years old
[17:41] The vital role that relationships play when stewarding a business for over one hundred years
[21:09] Similarities in Japanese and American century club companies
[24:04] Why some companies choose to not grow just for growth’s sake
[29:41] Storytelling and the development of the next generation leaders
[37:20] How century club companies survive crisis
[43:51] The accessibility of Vicki’s database
[46:07] Vicki’s belief that relationships are what matter not only in business but in life itself

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Vicki TenHaken.