05/01/2026
I am having a thought exercise I can't complete.
My grandson is 3, so the conversation is premature, but...
I am trying to think through what I would want him to have as an education to prepare him to take over my business. I can think of things I want, but almost none are directly related to formal education.
Here is my list so far:
1. He has to wrestle in a school program. He needs to learn discipline and to work hard. He needs to be able to stand on a mat, in front of hundreds of people and attempt to assert his will over an opponent, in an environment where there is no way to hide from mistakes or consequences.
2. He needs to be part of an actual team sport, so he learns to rely on people and have people rely on him. He also needs to recognize that some people are not worth the effort to keep in a group and the only way to improve is to get rid of them.
3. Some of the formal education needs to be in a hard science. A basic understanding of statistics and experimental/test design is necessary to evaluate information coming from other sources.
4. Experience actually selling something in a job where it is a grind. Selling gym memberships is a good example. Learning to prospect, grind, get used to people saying no, and watching how a large number of people process information and make decisions.
Beyond those things I am having difficulty seeing a lot of benefits in a formal education. A lot of what I learned in school through a Masters Degree (that isn't related to actual science) varies from outdated to actively wrong. Those same lessons can be learned accurately in the real world.
What skills or lessons would you want your grandson/granddaughter to learn to inherit your business?
What type of courses, education or college major would you want them to have?
If there is an actual discussion, I may turn this into an article for our magazines.
