A blessing for those who do not return to the family business

When family members either don’t come back to the family business, or they return only to realize that they need to move on, it can be bittersweet. On the one hand, you feel as if some piece of you is missing when not working alongside your loved ones. On the other hand, you wish for them to be happy, and seeing them develop a more independent life or a successful career can be deeply satisfying.

This blessing is for the family member who doesn’t return to the business. While they are not part of the management team, they still have an important role to play. They might offer helpful advice from the perspective of being involved in a different industry or a non-family business. They can be a sounding board for difficult issues, or might make a good board member because of their trusted status. They may even help your “family” gatherings be a little less focused on the business. Consider sharing this blessing with them.

We sensed that your passion
Did not fit with our business
Or that our business 
Did not need your gifts.

Perhaps we were blind
To your innermost wishes
Or we were biased in ways 
We still cannot see.

Maybe our inability to hear each other
Or the assumptions we each make 
Keep us from discovering 
A harmony in our daily work.

For these or other reasons
You have not returned
And our relationship today
Is not centered on labor.

Your absence creates questions
About legacy, fairness, and inheritance 
But in reality those same questions exist
No matter the circumstance.

Please know that your happiness elsewhere 
Brings us happiness here (at times hard to admit)
And that just as many blessings will arise 
from not being partners in business together.

As you pursue vocations and relationships elsewhere
May you be blessed with discernment.

As our business continues without you
May your wisdom gleaned from afar be a blessing to us and others.

As our relationship matures outside of the business
May God bless the time we spend together.

And, as you meet new opportunities and unexpected challenges 
May your receive God’s blessing and feel His care.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Matthew 19:29)

Prior blessings: For one who forgives others in the family business, for a long-term key employee, for the next generation’s new business venture, for a family member recovering from addiction, for a sibling partnership, for the end of a family business partnership, for grandparents in the family business, for those experiencing family estrangement, for your estate planning efforts, for a family business gathering, upon the passing of a family business member, for rest, for the next generation’s return, for the senior generation letting go, and for the new year.