“It’s a lot, isn’t it?“

I was sitting at my cousin‘s dining room table, looking at 175 years of Miller family history on paper, wondering “who are we, as a family, and why?” She is the custodian of family letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, books, and other documents going back into the middle 1800s. And she’d spread a lot of them on her dining table. It was a lot!

She had pulled some things for me to read and, together, we dug into a couple of more piles. As we looked at pictures and read obituaries and series of family letters, the Miller family story came clear.

In the very early years, back to the mid-1700s, we were, primarily, farmers. Then, three generations ago, in the late 1800s, the trajectory shifted.

My great grandfather, George, born in 1857, left the family farm to attend college in Wisconsin. He began teaching school in Wisconsin at the age of 23. His future wife, Emma, also from a farming family, began teaching at the age of 16 in Pennsylvania. They met in Wisconsin where they were both teaching. Through different paths, they migrated to Western Kansas and married in Kansas in 1889.

In Kansas they both continued to teach. Although George had engaged in ranching in Kansas, Millers were now educators, first, and ranchers or farmers, second. In 1898, Emma was selected as County Superintendent of Schools in which role she served for 13 years. She stopped teaching in 1931.

Despite the challenges of drought, economic panics and recessions, the World War, and the flu epidemic, all four of George’s and Emma’s children completed college. Two became teachers at the college level, one of them earned a PhD in economics.

My grandfather, the economist, had three children. One became a fine arts painter. Two pursued education: One earned a PhD in economics and became a university professor, the other became a doctor and medical school teacher.

In the next generation, mine, we’ve largely continued “the family trade” in education. I pursued a career in the training industry (education of a sort) while cousins pursued careers in primary and secondary education, the arts, the clergy, medicine, and finance.

When others are curious about our family priorities and quirks, particularly our joy in starting or engaging in a good argument: Education, debate, and hard work have been in our DNA for over 100 years. It started with George and Emma. It is who we are and I loved seeing that picture emerge from the past spread out on the dining room table.

So… With our clients: If we would take a little extra time, more time than we typically do, to hear their histories – where they started, where they shifted, what they’ve learned, how they developed their values – we could better understand who they are… and how they make decisions in the present, their priorities for the future, and our opportunities to assist them with our expertise and services.

Nick Miller and Clarity train banks and bankers to attract and develop deeper relationships with small businesses. Many more Sales Thoughts like this and a host of other articles and resources at https://clarityadvantage.com/knowledge-center/