Love it.

I've written at length about my Dad's adventures as an entrepreneur, but I remember that one statement made over card group[0] about my Dad's company and my Dad that really stuck with me.

The backstory is that Dad bought into a business he was working for. After several years of success, the majority shareholder decided to retire and sold the business, taking a deal that was highly favorable to him and violating contractual agreements in place with the other shareholders[1]. The end result was my Dad was out of a job at a company he worked hard to build and he did the legal things right to avoid getting here in the first place. The parts of that whole process that weren't blood-boiling infuriating were probably devastating, and I know he lost many night's sleep.

The old company was being purchased by its direct competitor, which was a much bigger outfit, already. Now it would have the manufacturing and (some of) the staff of the old business since OtherCorp[2] decided to keep the old place running. My Dad did get a payout; he probably could have taken that, done all of the investing he did over the years, and ended up retiring in the same position he's in now, but he didn't.

It wasn't that "all of this happened and so he buckled down and worked harder". He always worked hard. The Poker game comment was made shortly after my Dad had decided to open up a competing business, talking about his success at the previous one. And he was about to embark on taking on that competitor and his previous business as a completely new outfit running on a shiny bank loan.

The table was talking about my Dad setting up the new business and a neighbor friend's Dad folded and said: "Hah! They're FUCKED[3]! They didn't buy anything. They don't know that (old company) is Russ (my Dad)! Ford/GM/Chrysler don't want to work with (old company), they want to work with Russ". Then (mind you, probably a few beers in), he went on about story after story of my Dad's various rabbits he's pulled out of hats. The stories were insane--I've got comments written in the past about my Dad concluding a 24-hour workday (as part of a series over a few weeks, I think) with a drive down to a plant in another state to ensure parts arrived when promised, only to be given sympathy by the plant manager -- my Dad wasn't in his usual suit, he had on what he wore doing manual labor. The plant manager took a shot at "the jerk/prick/asshole" who's forcing him to drive all night, to which my Dad said something along the lines of "I sure am", I'm sure, but I doubt he took offense. At crunch times, my Dad was more than "the guy working back in the shop with everyone else", he was the guy doing the worst/most painful job. Assuming skill level wasn't a factor, if a job involved risk, it was his. Now, I'm not saying he was a saint. My Dad did not manage the people, and my high-school friends (who all got jobs in the back in the summer due to near limitless amounts of overtime) used to tell me some hilarious stories about him blowing his top screaming at them for this or that thing[4].

As I grew up and learned more of the story, I learned of the struggles the new company had getting these large automotive companies to be willing to work with such a small shop. At the end of the day, it was my Dad's willingness to take whatever job was given to them, do it better than anyone else and further prove that "that (old company) was my Dad, new company is my Dad".

Consequently, my understanding is that the lawsuits involved ended in my Dad's favor, but the lawyers were the only ones who profited. My Mom and Dad occasionally argued over the lawsuit. My Dad knew before they filed it that they'd never see a dime and would likely spend money. Nobody thought my Dad was holding out hope for a payout -- he was clear about it from the beginning that it was the principal of the matter. And when he won, I was moved out, but I don't recall being invited to any parties or even hearing about it except in passing. I'm sure it was important, but the thing that I did hear about was when he was able to purchase OldCorp back from the competitor about a decade later.

What was left of his old company's staff was let go and the business was wound down shortly after that. My Dad's business is still around. He's (pretty much) retired; still has the same stake in the company, though they're always entertaining offers to sell. He's had many offers, but none of them came with strong guarantees for the existing staff -- a lot of whom were there day #1 -- and he won't do that to them, they are great people. I think part of it is having a taste of that, himself, when his last company/job disappeared out from under him. Part of it is not wanting to sell the company knowing it's just going to become "a customer list" at a larger company. It won't be the next Google, but I bet he'd love it if it outlived him. I'm sure there are several other reasons, but I know he deeply valued how much his staff was willing to give to his company and that would have been enough.

[0] Mom/Dad played Pinochle and Euchre (Michigan thing) with a large group of couples, Dad played Poker.

[1] If that sounds really vague it's because I was pretty young when this happened, this is not an area I have any expertise in and I've never been sat down and told the entire story from start to finish, so I'm putting together pieces of that memory. But I lived through it as a kid so it's pretty vivid. :)

[2] Not their real name if that's not clear!

[3] Sorry about that -- I try to keep it clean, but that word wasn't said in my house very often, so when 12-13 year old me heard my friend's Dad use it to praise my Dad, it stuck with me. There are times that censoring the profanity loses the effect.

[4] A buddy of mine insisted that my Dad went into the back yelling at them for being behind on something, throwing F-bombs left and right. I spent a few minutes confirming he was talking about my Dad. Growing up, I think I heard him use it four times and Mom twice. When I went to work at a smaller shop in my teens (and every one thereafter in my life), I realize that's not all that surprising ... and that my buddy was also, probably, exaggerating. My Dad was a pilot for a long time and is well known for his cool head; he'd generally swore/yelled at "things" not people (other than the Lions, perhaps, but that's more yelling at the TV).