In last week’s email in our Family Legacy Planning series, we introduced the topic of a Family Mission Statement, setting out a family’s guiding principles. Although all families are diverse, there are certain core values that unify the family. Identifying the family’s purpose ties the family more closely together. In today’s frenetic world, it centers us to know that we stand for something solid. The ideal mission statement is visionary, setting out a path for our heirs to follow. By making it a part of our regular family communication, the mission lives on long after we are gone to help future generations remain connected.
As mentioned last week, there are no rights or wrongs. It can be short or long, but I like to think of it like the “elevator speech” that everyone can remember and recite during a single elevator ride. We adhered to that principle in setting the Blum Family Mission Statement, which came in handy when a New York Times reporter asked our mission when interviewing me for an article entitled “Looking for Ways to Keep Money From Dividing a Family.” Here’s what I revealed about the Blum family’s three-fold mission: “We value relationships. We value productive work. We value meaning in our life, from spirituality or whatever else can offer you something in terms of meaning.” The reporter commented that it might sound “like a sentiment scribbled on a Hallmark card” but acknowledged that we take it seriously.
I recently read an article in The Atlantic by Harvard professor Arthur Brooks that contained a sentence that grabbed my attention, as it lined up right on the mark with the Blum mission. In his weekly series on “How to Build a Life,” Brook urges us to Dream the Possible Dream, closing with this wisdom:
Dream of the person you want to be—not of how rich or powerful or famous that future self is, but about the life you will lead and work you will do to serve and enrich others maximally, leaving behind a world that is better than you found it. Then, consider what it will take for you to get there, and the happiness you will gain from the joyful journey of creating value and loving others with abundance. Finally, focus your attention on what you will do this day in your work, spiritual life, and relationships that keeps you on that path.
There you have it—the three tenets of the Blum mission: relationships, productive work, and spirituality. It’s reaffirming to know we’re on the same wavelength with Professor Brooks.
Marvin E. Blum
Marvin Blum with wife Laurie, mother Elsie, son Adam, daughter-in-law Brooke, granddaughter Lucy, daughter Elizabeth, son-in-law Ira, and granddaughters Stella and Juliet. Grandsons Oliver and Grey have since joined the Blum family.