Table of Contents for "Keep the Family Baggage Out of the Family Business:  Avoiding the Seven Deadly Sins That Destroy Family Businesses"

Part I begins by giving readers a general overview of what family businesses are and outlines some of the problems that families encounter when they work together. Chapter 2 presents a key argument of the book – that the attributes of a healthy and happy family are fundamentally opposed to those of an effective and successful business, explaining why businesses and families require different behaviors and illustrating the problems that are created when families try to impose family attributes onto their business. It also introduces the concept of "family baggage" and presents the main theme of the book – that any dysfunctional patterns in the family will be recreated in their business with disastrous results. Chapter 3 explains why conflicts in family businesses are so intense, and ends with a questionnaire that enables readers to assess the health of any family business.

Chapter 1: Why You Need to Read This Book

This chapter presents the fundamental reason why family businesses have so many problems and provides an explanation that differs other books – that it is the interplay of differing systems (i.e., the family system and the business system), coupled with "baggage," that creates problems for family businesses. The book's main theme – that any dysfunctional patterns in the family will be recreated in their business with disastrous results – is then presented. The final section provides two critical guidelines that help family businesses overcome the problems created by their systems and baggage.