????54年前，我的父母埃德與諾瑪?米切爾憑借三套西裝、一個(gè)咖啡壺和一個(gè)夢想，在康涅狄格州韋斯特波特一間只有800平方英尺的建筑里創(chuàng)辦了男裝商店。

????上世紀(jì)60年代，我和弟弟比爾加入了家族企業(yè)，1974年父母將火炬?zhèn)鞯搅宋覀兪种小５搅?0年代中期，我和比爾已經(jīng)將這家企業(yè)打造成了在韋斯特波特占據(jù)統(tǒng)治性地位的服飾商店。90年代，我們的七個(gè)兒子與我的妻子林達(dá)加盟企業(yè)，使其進(jìn)一步成長為全美最大的家族擁有的高檔服飾商店，年?duì)I收超過1億美元。

????你能想象半輩子職業(yè)生涯都在家族企業(yè)中度過，與母親、父親和兄長共事，而且還保持良好關(guān)系嗎？然后下半輩子職業(yè)生涯與兄長、妻子、四個(gè)兒子和三個(gè)侄子共事，仍然精誠合作嗎？我是罕見的例子。我們得以創(chuàng)造一種相互尊重和信賴的環(huán)境，在此之下，我們能像一個(gè)團(tuán)隊(duì)那樣運(yùn)作，分擔(dān)企業(yè)經(jīng)營中情感和才智面臨的挑戰(zhàn)，并分享經(jīng)濟(jì)收益。

????第二代到第三代的交接之旅一直相當(dāng)愉快，以至于我們已經(jīng)開始盤算如何把管理權(quán)轉(zhuǎn)移給第四代了?；仡櫸覀儼雮€(gè)世紀(jì)來的歷史，我認(rèn)為一路順風(fēng)順?biāo)獨(dú)w功于以下七點(diǎn)：

1. 薪火相傳的激情

????得是你真心想要這么做才行，你得真想把權(quán)益和責(zé)任交給下一代，我的父母有這種激情，而我和弟弟也擁抱了這種激情。

2. 尋求幫助

????父親傳給我們一個(gè)神奇的表述，我們兄弟倆將它發(fā)揚(yáng)光大：“我需要你的幫助?！睘榱司幹瞥晒Φ慕唤佑?jì)劃，我們需要幫助。我們并不了解關(guān)于家族企業(yè)的一切知識(shí)，因此我們同意從成功者那里學(xué)習(xí)。1979年我們加入了“論壇”（Forum）——一個(gè)由十幾家類似家族企業(yè)組成的互助組織。在1985年的一場會(huì)議上，家族企業(yè)咨詢專家戴維?波克發(fā)表的演講引起了我們的共鳴，次日我們就聘請(qǐng)了他。我和比爾與他共事七年之久，共同完善交接計(jì)劃。我們還設(shè)立了一個(gè)外部建議委員會(huì)，在接班以及其他戰(zhàn)略議題上發(fā)揮輔助作用。

????戴維從一開始就向我們強(qiáng)調(diào)，我們首先應(yīng)當(dāng)重視家族企業(yè)的企業(yè)性，換句話說，像運(yùn)營其他企業(yè)一樣運(yùn)營它，大多數(shù)時(shí)候?qū)ζ髽I(yè)有利的事對(duì)家庭也很有裨益。

????幸運(yùn)的是，我們兄弟倆的七個(gè)兒子都很聰明，上了頂尖的大學(xué)，學(xué)業(yè)相當(dāng)出色。我們希望他們自己決定職業(yè)發(fā)展方向，如果他們想進(jìn)入家族企業(yè)，我們非常歡迎，前提是他們要遵守我們上世紀(jì)80年代確立的兩條規(guī)則。我很是討厭規(guī)則，但戴維和比爾使我相信，我們需要一些堅(jiān)定的規(guī)則。

3. 五年規(guī)則

????我們兄弟倆的兒子大學(xué)畢業(yè)后，得先在別處工作五年。父親仍然經(jīng)常與我們一起參與公司經(jīng)營，他不是很喜歡這一規(guī)則，擔(dān)心我們把他的孫子們“送出牧場之外”，浪費(fèi)了孫輩已經(jīng)體現(xiàn)出的優(yōu)越才干和對(duì)家族企業(yè)的激情。

????盡管我和比爾也認(rèn)識(shí)到了這一風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，我們感到他們必須獲取經(jīng)驗(yàn)、自信，并領(lǐng)會(huì)真實(shí)世界中真正的工作是怎樣的。他們必須理解被父親或叔叔之外的人招聘、派遣到另一個(gè)城市、升遷、排擠或提拔意味著什么。如果他們決定成為宇航員或足科醫(yī)生，我們也會(huì)全心全意支持。

????五年規(guī)則不僅給下一代工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)，還使他們獲得了可以帶到家族企業(yè)內(nèi)部的智慧。當(dāng)我們的子侄加入企業(yè)時(shí)，他們積極給出建議，因?yàn)樗麄冇羞@些外部工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)，我和弟弟愈加尊重他們的建議。

????拉塞爾擁有IBM工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)；鮑勃曾效力于《體育畫報(bào)》；安德魯在運(yùn)動(dòng)鞋廠商Footlocker和歌帝梵巧克力公司都工作過；斯科特涉獵過服飾企業(yè)Eddie Bauer、Abercrombie & Fitch和Ann Taylor；克里斯給NBC體育臺(tái)和百貨公司內(nèi)曼?馬庫斯打過工；泰勒曾效力于澳大利亞男裝公司Henry Bucks、意大利男裝品牌Brioni和加拿大的服飾零售公司Harry Rosen；林達(dá)則在自己的家族企業(yè)工作過。

????Fifty-four years ago -- with three suits, a coffee pot, and a dream -- my parents, Ed and Norma Mitchell, founded a men's clothing store in Westport, Conn., in a little 800-square-foot building.

????In the mid-1960s, my brother Bill and I joined the family business, and in 1974 our parents passed the torch to us. By the mid-1980s, Bill and I had built the business into a dominant clothing store in Westport. In the 1990s, our seven sons came aboard, along with my wife Linda, and the business has grown into the largest family-owned upscale clothing store in the United States, with sales exceeding $100 million.

????Can you imagine spending half of your working life in a family business, beside your mother, father, and brother, and all getting along? And then spending the next half of your work life with your brother, your spouse, your four sons and three nephews, and still all getting along? I pinch myself. We have been able to create an environment of mutual respect and trust, one where we can function as a team that shares the emotional and intellectual challenges of business along with its financial rewards.

????The succession from the second to the third generation has been a joyful journey, so much so that we have already begun to plan for the transition to the fourth generation. When I think back over our half century, I can identify seven things that made it all go smoothly.

1. Passion to pass the torch

????You have to want to do it. You have to want to pass the equity and the responsibility to the next generation. My mother and father had this passion, and my brother and I embraced it.

2. Asking for help

????My father gave us a wonderful phrase that my brother and I adopted: "I need your help." To shape a successful succession plan, we needed help. We didn't know everything about family businesses and so we agreed to study successful ones. In 1979, we joined the Forum, a networking group of a dozen or so similar family businesses. At a 1985 meeting, David Bork, a family business consultant, gave a talk that resonated with us. The next day, we hired him. Bill and I worked with him for several years on our plan. We also set up an outside advisory board to assist with this and other strategic issues.

????David shared with us from the beginning that we should think of our family business as a business first. In other words, run it as a business, and most of the time what is good for the business isgreat for the family.

????We were blessed with seven bright sons who went to excellent colleges and did well. We wanted them to make their own decisions about their careers. If they wanted to enter the family business, our arms were open, provided that they satisfied two rules we established in the late 1980s. I intensely dislike rules, but David and Bill convinced me that we needed to have a couple of firm ones.

3. The five-year rule

????Our sons had to work five years elsewhere after finishing college. This rule was not popular with our father, who was still very much with us. He worried that we were sending his grandsons "out to pasture" and that we might lose some of the great talent and passion for the business that his grandsons had already demonstrated.

???While Bill and I recognized that risk, we felt they had to gain experience, self-confidence and an understanding of what a real job is about in the real world. They needed to know what it meant to be hired, transferred to a different city, promoted, pushed, and pulled by someone other than their father or uncle. If they decided on becoming an astronaut or a podiatrist instead, we would support it wholeheartedly.

????The five-year rule not only gives the next generation work experience, it also gives them wisdom they can bring into the family business. When our sons join the business, they made positive recommendations, and my brother and I respected them even more because they had these outside experiences.

????Russell worked at IBM, Bob at Sports Illustrated, Andrew at Footlocker and Godiva Chocolatier; Todd at Apple (AAPL); Scott at Eddie Bauer, Abercrombie and Fitch (ANF), and Ann Taylor; Chris at NBC Sports and Neiman Marcus; Tyler at Henry Bucks in Australia, Brioni, and Harry Rosen in Canada; and Linda worked at her own family business.