Ever since I had a child, I hoped that he would someday grow up and take over the family business.
I have a heating and cooling company that I started from the ground up, and it would be nice if it was something that stayed in the family for generations. Looking back, he tried to tell me that he didn’t want to be an Heating as well as Air Conditioning contractor, but I guess I didn’t want to listen. I kept thinking that he would change his mind as he got older, but he never did. When he was getting ready to graduate high school, I showed him all of these great programs that I wanted him to enroll in. He could have had his certification before the end of the year, and under my tutelage, I was sure he could take over the company by the time he was twenty-one. I indulged him for a while, but I knew I had to tell him I wasn’t going to school for Heating as well as Air Conditioning. For a while, I think my son tried to humor me. I think he wanted to please me so he was willing to consider the option, but when it came down to it, he simply did not want to be a heating and cooling specialist. He sat me down shortly after his graduation and told me how he was feeling. While it hurt, I appreciated his honesty and wanted him to be happy above all else. It was hard to brush it off, though, and it certainly weighed on me for a few weeks. In the end, my daughter ended up taking over the business, so it all worked out.