Have you ever thought about the generational transfer of wealth, fiscal responsibility and contribution? The generational wealth statistics that hit the third generation are appalling. Basically, the first generation breaks butts and creates something great. The second generation takes advantage of the knowledge and experience and expands the company because they grew up seeing the work ethic and ingenuity of the first generation. Now comes the third generation that basically hand over the keys without doing the work and the company dies. This is the fault of the second generation teachings and the third generation rights mentality.

Why is this important to me?

If you have a business and you are building your net worth and you want to transfer it, then this is of vital importance to you. Do you know that 90% of lottery winners go broke in 5 years and end up in worse shape than when they started? This is even worse for former athletes. Athletes are good at what they do and they just think they are good at business because they have the money. Like athletics, creating wealth is a science that requires dedication and hard, smart work.

Anyone who says he will go into business and be successful without the job is no different than me saying that I will start running back for the Dallas Cowboys next year. Both are very unrealistic, but most people don’t see it that way for business. Education is essential along with hard and smart work.

The browser quadrant is divided into three key parts. For the sake of time, I will define what the quadrant is and then I will touch on how to start living it.

1. What is the browser quadrant? The Brower Quadrant consists of four components. The first component is the “CORE”. These are your special talents and what drives you as a person. If you are a musician, athlete, artist or entrepreneur, the core is what defines you. The “EXPERIENCE” quadrant is all the experiences that define you and your family. This is important and should be captured and put into story format. Example: My grandfather came to this country only when he was 9 years old on a ship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Put this in perspective, as most 9-year-olds today aren’t even allowed outside after 5:00 in a good neighborhood. Unfortunately, I was too young when he died and I couldn’t capture the whole story to share. The experiences that shape your personality and essence must be captured and shared. They may seem trivial to you, but they are important because they define what you do and how you do it.

The “CONTRIBUTION” quadrant is as follows. This is where you instill an attitude of gratitude and open your heart. I realize this is esoteric, but I can’t tell you how many books I’ve read that say the same thing. Basically, this is Emerson’s law of compensation: If you want more, give more.

The “FINANCIAL QUADRANT” is the wealth and money preservation quadrant. Most estate planning folks will just show you how to minimize tax liability and ask how you want to divide assets once you get down to nap. Lee takes a completely different approach and shows you how to continue to grow your financial position with Family Empowered Bank and pass it on from generation to generation. The Brower Quadrant is the solution to passing wealth through generations.

2. Why is the browser quadrant important? I touched on this above, but it bears repeating. Each of the quadrants can be considered an asset. Family knowledge and skills are often taken for granted and lost. Most hard-working entrepreneurs lose their businesses to their heirs. This also creates family stress and broken relationships. I can personally attest to this. Our business consisted of an extended family and the right of one of the partners was absolutely despicable and it tore the family apart and ended up in court.

3. How does it work? Lee says it best in the subtitle of a chapter: “Family Leadership.” This is much more than estate planning. Leadership requires vision, clarity, action, communication, influence, and a host of other attributes. The implementation of the Brower Quadrant requires clarity in each quadrant with a set of action plans that are communicated and taken into account.

The Brower Quadrant is a must-read for anyone interested in preserving and building wealth across generations. Lee does an excellent job outlining what is needed and providing additional resources. I started implementing some of the things in the book and will continue to implement all of them as our family and business grow.

I hope this short video summary has been helpful to you. The key to any new idea is to incorporate it into your daily routine until it becomes a habit. Habits are formed in just 21 days. One thing you can take away from this book is the difference between Family Leadership and Estate Planning. These two concepts are very different and estate planning is just a very small subset of Family Leadership and the Brower Quadrant.