Family Business Cutthroats

"The person who will not stand for something will fall for anything."

- Zig Ziglar

You can make your business a family affair.  Entering into business with family seems fun and exciting.  Just slow down a little first.  There's a lot more than you need to get clearer on before even going beyond the mere idea of it.

Going into business with family can be troubling.  It can be outright trouble, too.  You have to be certain about what you are getting into with whom.  Otherwise, blood or not, things can get real sticky for folks.

Jacob was a swindler.  He came out of the womb that way.  His name reveals his dominant character.  He swindled his way through his early life and found himself on the run from his brother for dear life with a stolen birthright.  He met his match when he met up with Laban, his uncle and soon-to-be father-in-law.

If Jacob was shrewd, Laban mas even more shrewder. If Jacob was a swindler, then Laban was a swindler of the utmost kind. If Jacob could work one on you, then Laban sure enough could lay one on you and leave you both broke and blind before you could catch your breath.

Without a doubt, once these two got together, the fireworks got lit and kept exploding.  Women, labor, sheep and goats, even idols, came between Jacob and Laban.  Jacob lost trust in Laban after his midnight switcheroo on Jacob's wedding night.  Laban surely lost trust in Jacob after he got bamboozled out of his flock by the younger man.  They mistreated each other in numerous ways and by various means.  The sad part was that they were related by both marriage and blood.  It still didn't make any difference.

Don't let this poor example of family business deter you from thoughts of going into business with family.  Let it serve as a lesson for you to truly look at a person's character (the revealed actions and interactions that reveal who people really are under all of the masks and facades that people sometimes tend to hide behind).  See them for who they are and what they are and leave it at that.  Discern about them and more about yourself.  See if you can't handle being in business with them.  After all, who has a better look at them than you? You've known them since they were in diapers.