Robert Balentine is the Chairman of Balentine and a three-time entrepreneur. His own entrepreneurial journey began in 1987, when he and his father founded Balentine & Company, which grew to become the largest independently owned wealth management firm in the South twelve years later. Barron’s and Forbes have named Robert among the nation’s leading wealth management advisors seventeen times, most recently in 2021. In 2013, the Metro Atlanta Chamber presented Robert with their inaugural Businessperson of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 2018 the Atlanta Business Chronicle named him one of Atlanta’s Most-Admired CEOs.
WEALTH AND LEGACY
“During our careers, so many of us are so wholly immersed in our companies that we don’t take time to think through communication around money within our own families. First Generation Wealth provides a thoughtful road map to help navigate issues around wealth and legacy.” —Frank Blake Former Chairman and CEO of The Home Depot “In First Generation Wealth, Robert and Adrian challenge you to ask yourself critical questions, which are relevant wherever you are in your journey toward building family resilience. Over time, asking these questions will help you fine-tune your wealth and legacy strategy as your family’s needs change.” —Sally Belk Gambrell President, the Gambrell Foundation “How do you sustain a business, family health and harmony, and family wealth? It has to be an ongoing purposeful process (mission) and Robert and Adrian have explored the history of what works (and doesn’t). If you want to ‘sustain,’ this is a must-read.” —Joe W. Rogers, Jr. Chairman, Waffle House, Inc. “This is a book for entrepreneurs, but it is not about entrepreneurship. It is about what happens next. After business and financial success, the concern of the entrepreneur and his or her family is how to use the wealth wisely and preserve the family. The book is wonderfully clear and useful, and absolutely riveting in its narrative.” —Dennis T Jaffe, Ph.D. Senior Research Fellow, BanyanGlobal Family Business Advisors, and author of Borrowed from Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises. www.firstgenerationwealth.com
First Generation
WEALTH Three Guiding Principles for Long-Lasting Wealth and an Enduring Family Legacy
USA $28.00 CANADA $28.00
Wealth and Enduring Family Legacy First generation wealth creators have a priceless opportunity to lay the groundwork for lasting family wealth and avoiding what is known in the field as the shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves phenomenon. In this book, preeminent wealth management experts and seasoned entrepreneurs Robert Balentine and Adrian Cronje of the storied wealth management firm Balentine LLC help readers think through in a very personal way what it takes to build a meaningful legacy and best support future generations. They offer their first-hand perspective on not only the financial, but also the emotional and psychological challenges that entrepreneurs commonly face and share their Three Guiding Principles for LongLasting Wealth and an Enduring Family Legacy: 1. Don’t Mistake Wealth For Legacy 2. Distinguish Between Your Business and the Business of Your Family
Robert Balentine & Adrian Cronje, PhD
Adrian Cronje is Balentine’s Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer and a founding partner. Originally from South Africa, he holds a PhD in macroeconomics and econometrics from Cambridge University and is also a CFA® Charterholder. Prior to founding Balentine with Robert, Adrian was the Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist at Wilmington Trust and the Director and Deputy Head of Quantitative Equity Products at Schroders. In 2010, Adrian was named to the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 40 Under 40. In 2018, Adrian was recognized as a Top Entrepreneur Honoree by TiE, an organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship and giving back to the community. Currently, he serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Wealth Management.
U.S. $28.00 CAN $28.00
First Generation Wealth
Author Bios
3. See the World Through the Next Generation’s Eyes
Robert Balentine & Adrian Cronje, PhD
First Generation Wealth shares stories that illuminate these guiding principles and also provide tactical steps entrepreneurs at any stage of their wealth and life journey can take to incorporate them into their long-term strategies. Cover illustration: Balentine Packing Company, Greenville SC, 1933
Foreword By Brian Dyson I was raised on a farm on the Pampas in Argentina, where achieving wealth was a distant dream among many. There the sky stretches tight to the horizon all around and the outlying farmhouses and their defining woods are like so many ships cruising a sea of land. Perhaps it was natural, then, to cast off and seek what lay far beyond my own relentless horizon. So, I left Argentina and after a twenty-year journey through Latin America and the Caribbean, I ended up in Atlanta, as President of North America for the Coca-Cola Company. Along the way I had married, and we started a family, lived in four countries, and I developed FIRST GENERATION WEALTH
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a rewarding career before coming to the U.S. for a more permanent residence. At that stage, I began to establish modest wealth but, more importantly, started to develop what I would call the pursuit of a corollary wealth of mind and purpose, as best evidenced by this quote.
“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them: Work, Family, Friends, Health, and Spirit, and you’re keeping all of them in the air. Hopefully, you will soon understand that Work is a rubber ball: if you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls are more fragile. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably marked, damaged, or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand this and strive for balance in your life.”
This is an excerpt from a commencement address I gave to the Business School of Georgia Tech, to which I added this final admonishment: “Do not shortchange the key relationships in your life. You may consider yourself a hotshot VIP but, if you tell the president you will have to call back because you must make your daughter’s first school recital, you
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will be an even bigger person.” It was at this time that I began to realize that any level of wealth came with great responsibility and powerful obligations if it was to be protected. This was akin to the thinking I had already experienced about the education of my two daughters. Should it be for Living, with a primary focus on gaining wealth, or should it be for Life, where the focus shifts to a more holistic question of the purpose of wealth in your life? Fundamental questions followed: “What are you going to do with your wealth? Will you protect it? Grow it? Divide it? And how will you manage this in your declining years?” These issues brought me into a relationship with Balentine and their focus on first generation wealth. They helped organize my thoughts with a one-page questionnaire on Legacy and Mission. To me this was an invitation to look back . . . and then look forward. Again, this link was familiar territory because it was a reminder of a practice by the ancient Romans, who named Janus their god of beginnings. Think of January as the first month—exemplified by a coin with two aquiline faces staring in opposite directions, to look back before planning forward. This discipline has been extolled by philosophers such as Spain’s George Santayana. “Those who do not
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understand the past are condemned to repeat it.” Or statesmen like Winton Churchill, who claimed, “You can only see into the future as far as you can peer into the past.” But even if you ignore these lofty thoughts, I would challenge anyone who has some level of wealth to reflect: How did you get here? Does this experience not enrich and guide your plans for the future? The simple Legacy question posed by Balentine on how you would want to be remembered seized my imagination. Well, surely I would want future generations to see me as fulfilled, like I had left nothing on the table. I worked hard and played hard. I did my utmost. My restless curiosity goaded me down strange roads and to far horizons. And every year I would practice my Janus moment and do a 360-degree introspection: Where am I going? Am I happy? Is my work meaningful and on a worldly reach? And thus refreshed, I would go all out. Surely future generations would see this. But then the insidious thoughts would surface: What if they didn’t? What if good works and noble intentions were not so evident? Remember, you will not be around to argue or plead your case. And so, for lack of forethought, your first generation wealth may be your last and all your good thoughts for a happy future will turn to dust. Now, do you understand the importance of these Legacy questions and what they are prompting you 4
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to do? Do you understand their wisdom? In my own case, there is an important preface to these comments. I have been very lucky in life. So I have an even stronger desire to give back, to sort things out, and to share my story. Why am I lucky? Because, at eighty-five, I’m still around to speak my truth. I was lucky to not be drawn into some fearsome war, or struck down by horrific illness, nor rendered mute by failure of mind and purpose. I will still rage at the dying of any light. A few years ago, I started writing an essay on my life and learnings that I wanted to share with my family and friends. Over the years, this morphed into a full memoir. My clear motivation was to pass on any abiding lessons to those who participated in my journey, and to those who might benefit by analogy. This endeavor has given me fulfillment and happiness. But now that I have deepened my relationship with Balentine and been exposed to their seminal book, First Generation Wealth, I realize the need to take a big step forward. I am fully prompted to go all in with my own Legacy and Mission plan, and to share the highlights of my thinking. When asked about a defining event in my life, I will easily reply: “My move from the family ranch in Argentina.” It was the driving need to experience other lifestyles before deciding where to settle down. FIRST GENERATION WEALTH
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It was the willingness to risk everything, both material and emotional, in this quest. If you feel restricted or confined, then face up to it and do something about it, lest you regret it for the rest of your life. This willingness to stand up and seek the right path is a core family value. We must all practice our Janus moment with, “Where am I going?” so as to preserve and promote fulfillment and happiness. My ticket out of Argentina was through meaningful work with an international company, and it made me grow up fast. Again, learn to stand up and take your best shot. Even if you fail on some intention and have to limp back with a tail-between-your-legs face, you will have learned much more than if you had never ventured. You will learn about key values of Integrity and Fulfillment and Happiness and Compassion. And a value that I found to be both difficult and elusive is to try and see what is around the next turn of the road, to look ahead and be predictive. As I looked back on my own past, in this exercise on Legacy, I have learned how much my immediate family has helped and become intertwined in the creation of wealth. While I was off travelling and furthering business, my wife kept the home fires burning and maintained the family unity, and our two daughters readily absorbed the different cultures and grew into their roles. As a family, we all stood together, which was an essential building block of our 6
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wealth. This is important because we now turn to the question of Mission. So now that you have gained some wealth: What for? What are you going to do with it? Or, if you are in your “Golden Years,” what is your family going to do? Do you care? Or are you laissez faire? I rise up and say, “Hell yes, I care.” This wealth has given our family a precious freedom of choice that we must recognize. It has allowed us to have a strong level of education; to travel and become citizens of the world; to find where we fit and define our Mission. This wealth was honestly wrought through hard work and smart decisions. Finally, this wealth allows us to show active concern for the welfare of those who surround us, interact, and otherwise touch our lives. I do not wish our wealth squandered, nor our freedom lost. Other thoughts crowd in. When I was still in Argentina, I became friendly with a young lawyer named Ricardo, who was starting out and, as we both matured, I learned one of his passions. He was sometimes called in to mediate in cases of family succession. “Imagine the typical immigrant entrepreneur from Spain or Italy who comes to Argentina to seek his fortune; he works like a dog to build some wealth, drops dead of a heart attack while in his late fifties, and leaves a widow who inherits everything.” Ricardo pauses. “Who knew about regular medical check-ups or preventive medicine FIRST GENERATION WEALTH
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back then? Anyway, the widow inherits and although everything will pass to their five children eventually, she may live into her eighties. And when their grownup children come to her for help or an advance for an entirely legitimate purpose, she will say, ‘No. Your sainted father, may he rest in peace, always said to work hard and scrimp and save.’ Because that was what she thought was her duty.” It was now getting late and we had almost finished a bottle of port, but my friend grabbed my arm hard. “The system is all wrong. You must provide for your children when they most need it, when they are starting out. Imagine the needless vicissitudes and hardships as they sit around and wait for her to die.” He shook his head and wiped his glasses, “In one case . . . not even for some curtains for the newlyweds!” I will never forget his imploring look, nor the message. Another instance that has shaped my views on wealth occurred in my late twenties while I attended a program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School. It was a lecture by an Associate Dean, Stephen Fuller, entitled “Three Ways of Governing Men.” Dean Fuller, an expert on labor relations, gave a brilliant speech, and I remember jumping up as a class to applaud and a strange thing happened. The dean paused on his way out, turned and came back and looked around our U-shaped classroom, as if an afterthought had occurred. 8
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“I wonder about you.” He paused. “I wonder because you are destined to command, to govern others, otherwise your companies would not have risked sending you here.” Another pause. “I wonder if you will listen to your people?” Yet another pause as he looked around. “Will you try and understand what they are saying?” Now with raised voice, “Will you give a damn about your people . . . because remember this: you cannot help another without becoming a better person yourself in the process.” I think you can now see where my life journey has taken me and why I’m prepared to address the fundamental Mission question of “What now?” I know my Legacy, but now what is my hope for future generations? What would bring a smile to my face in the hereafter? Again, I leap up and say, “Happiness and Fulfillment.” That is the short answer. Happiness is a powerful concept. Not only is it enshrined in the Declaration of Independence—Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness—but also the English philosopher, Bertrand Russell, wrote a book, The Conquest of Happiness, which extols Happiness in many ways as the purpose of life. Fulfillment is, for me, an even bigger concept, with Happiness as the reward. Going back to my early days on the Pampas in Argentina, I had the hard-wired belief that we all are born with certain goals, wishes, hopes, and desires. And it is the lifelong pursuit of these goals that constitutes fulfillment. FIRST GENERATION WEALTH
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But having favored you with a short answer, I hurry to add that I hope my family will be open to the winds of change; that they will preserve their precious freedom of choice; and that they will be actively concerned with the welfare of those around them. Let me ask you: if you have some wealth, would you be alert to liberating an assistant from crushing and usurious debt, if you could? This is what Dean Fuller wondered. Would you be open to these random acts of kindness, of easing a heavy load, at low risk to your enterprise? In Argentina we say, speaking figuratively, “If a person in your service falls from their saddle, will you run to pick them up and carry them to safe haven?” In my book, if you do not practice this, then you are not worthy. In summary, I ask you to please return to the initial anecdote of juggling five balls: Work, Family, Friends, Health, and Spirit. If you learn to keep them in the air, you will take a huge step toward an enduring Legacy. And because, as the song says, “Into every garden a little rain must fall,” perhaps through some conflict and confusion you will have already built concentric circles of defense. As a first line, your early thinking about this potential threat is a key step. Then you can always turn to individual members of your extended family, who will understand the importance of preserving family unity. Similarly, you can appeal to informed friends. Finally, you can turn to professionals, like Balentine and others who have experience in dealing 10
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with troubled waters, problem solving for wealth management and quality of life. I will now rest my case. But do you see how a onepage questionnaire on Legacy and Mission can evoke such a deeply felt response? Now, please enjoy your reading of First Generation Wealth. Brian Dyson is the former Vice Chairman and COO of the Coca-Cola Company. He was also the CEO of Coca-Cola Enterprises in 1986, at that time the largestever IPO in the United States.
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