Friend-Based Villages are Fragile

“There’s a metaphor I like to use with my family when talking about group cohesion: Our family is a big ship — in my mind it’s an old ship of the line but it could be a cruise too — floating through the ocean. Each person on the ship can stay onboard and continue their journey with the family, or they can hop into a lifeboat and float away to make their own fortune in the world.

My family, with each generation moving to new locations and working in new industries, has tended over the decades to be a lifeboat family. But others, such as those who work together in multigenerational businesses (among many other things), have remained in the big ship and have reaped the benefits that come with working together.”