In this study we heed the call from a growing number of scholars to extend our understanding of performance differences between family and non-family firms. Drawing on the mixed gamble logic of the behavioral agency model and the socioemotional wealth prospective, we provide a more fine-grained understanding of the unique role and diverse logic of dominant owners in relation to performance outcomes. Our findings suggest that family firms are the worst among the best (i.e. among firms that do not experience financial distress, they perform worse) and the best among the worst (i.e. among firms that experience financial distress, they perform better), which we attribute to the fact that family owners have more firm specific current wealth to lose (including not only financial wealth but also SEW), and as such respond differently to financial distress.