Dear friends!! It never works. You better keep them far away fm yr business & resources. Male envy is a mortal weapon, don’t you ever forget that!! (specially, when you have more money than they!!!)

It can definitely work. My husband worked for me for many years. We had a ball. He was not threatened. He and I have complimentary skills. I’m much more organized and the visionary. I laid out the plan, set the milestones, he executed. I told him when I wasn’t happy. We left business at work, tried not to talk about it in the evenings. That was our key to success. I don’t think you can generalize on it working or not. Very dependent on personalities, success of the business, temperaments of those involved. Sounds like Marta had a bad experience with men. I’ve always made more than my husband. It’s never been a problem through our 30+ years of marriage.

Is that Geraldine Fabrikant in the photo above? Can you possible be more perfectly pulled together and beautiful? I think not! Terrific piece. But then anything with “entrepreneur” in it has me doing mental handsprings in glee. I know several husband and wife biz partners where she started the enterprise and it works terrifically. Two architects that do urban sculptures. A writer/photographer and PhD psychologist who have an African travel biz. A real estate development and management team with hundreds of employees. If my deceased husband and I were a team whatever we attempted would work….or we’d go down in flames trying! He was mellow and practical, and thought I was the smartest, greatest thing since stars were invented (never hard to take). I was always ready to mortgage the future and work like a monk on speed for things that would make a faint-hearts shiver and weep. Together we were like ‘salt and pepper.’ Couldn’t say one name without thinking the other. He’d be thrilled to be alive today. And would be a tech ace. Interestingly, my father (a Fortune 50 exec) proposed taking over the management of a company a girlfriend and I started in our early 20s. (An male attorney friend also said ‘expand’ because it had been such an easy hit, but wasn’t something I wanted to do long term.) “We have our own company to get away from controlling men, Dad, thanks.” We did have male workers, though. Never were they as smart, hard working, or as organized and neat. But they were awfully cute to have around. ;)

In my large Rea Estate company, we have several husband/wife teams. Their arrangements seem to work out very well because where one may be more technically savvy, the other is more into marketing. They regard each other in a totally equal fashion and exploit their individual talents. In public, at least, one never sees a Power Play on the part of either spouse. And, they don’t have to be together all the time. As for me, I still think about what I said in the question of the day…I just would not want to be “joined at the hip”, as they say.

I realized that winemaking is one of the most successful husband/wife ventures. In under 150 years (in an industry that dates back to 8,000 BC) California’s mostly family owned 850+ wineries export 90% of U.S. wines. And behind only France, Spain and Italy is the 4th largest wine producer in the world. California’s ‘family’ wine business adds $45.5 billion overall economic impact to the state, and over $150 billion to U.S. coffers. The wine industry (and because it is California’s and the nation’s #1 finished agricultural crop, and grapes are vulnerable to global warming) is also proactive in the sustainable farming/organics movement. For example, using Golden Retrievers to sniff out mealy bug infestations that cost wineries over $10M a year in losses, and saving the use of pesticides that get in the water and air. 2005 was the turning point when the U.S became more of a wine drinking, than beer drinking culture. As a result wine bars are very popular. Perhaps it’s a mixture of the health benefits of wine (ie even Dr. Oz recommends drinking a glass a day for health) and also that meeting over a glass of wine seems like a celebration of mind and spirit (weddings, New Year’s Eve champagne, etc), while beer is more associated with the body, sports and action. Or, maybe as a nation we are tired of the “Wild West” administration and a glass of wine feels like a sly refutation, and a tonic. Some smartypants sociologist needs to get on this.

I’m just curious where you find these men who are so secure with themselves that they don’t mind working for their wife? I’m not married, but have ended relationships because he felt threatened by my masters degrees, talent, motivation and outgoing personality. Apparently, I’ve been looking in all the wrong places!!! Heck, I’ll even pay for shipping and handling.