You’re not really a man until …
An old man shares how owning a company and taking care of employees is a sign of maturity.
I learned a few things this past weekend from a 69-year-old tradesman in Taylors Falls, Minnesota. After picking up our first batch of lamb meat from Cherry Hill Meats, I pulled into his gravel lot halfway up the hill to inquire about materials he was selling on the side of the road.
He was in the middle of something but he came around the corner of a dilapidated camper and after dispelling his assumption that i was looking to get something for free we talked.
He told me about his years in the trades. “I stopped working for five years and it almost killed me,” he said.
He talked about his big and small commercial (city and state) customers and the cost estimates they demanded. Big cities could demand lower costs. Small cities got what they got.
And he told me about his disappointment that his son had pursued a more lucrative career in a “franchise” version of his dad’s company.
“I don’t think you’re a man until you show up on Monday morning to employees and you have to find them work,” he said, “and make sacrifices.”