Dad gives the family business to brother-in-law instead of his son, who has worked there for 17 years since he was 15 years old, son starts a new business, forcing dad to beg him to come back: 'The business is now 100% my brother-in-law’s'

Is this "Succession" in real life? It's at least some weird "Sopranos" fusion version of it, where the family runs a mechanics shop instead of a sanitation company or media empire. 

Family businesses carry an incredible burden. The founding members of the family have likely toiled most of their adult lives to bring about the company's success. Building the company from its infancy, through tough times, towards eventual profitability and even accolades. There's a strong likelihood that all of that work has been done amidst the raising of their own children, with the time and emotional energy spent on the company sometimes at the cost of that family and their place in it. So the two become inseparably intertwined.

But, at some point, there is going to be the question of succession: who will take up the mantle and the weight of a legacy?

Taking place absent from the boardrooms amidst a Manhattan skyline, this account of events takes place upon the grease-stained shop floors of a mechanic's workshop, with literal years of sweat amalgamating with the oil to form a bitter betrayal. 

This now 32-year-old son worked at his father's repair shop for the last 17 years, since he was 15 years old, and literally for his entire adult life up until this point. He did so with the understanding that it would one day be his; however, on the eve of his 60th birthday, his father announced that the shop would instead be handed over to his brother-in-law, who had no experience at all in the trade. Humiliated, betrayed, and facing a demotion and pay cut, he made a commitment to himself then and there that he would strike out on his own. In doing so, he took most of the existing shop's employees and customers with him, a testament to how well regarded he was amongst staff and the customer base alike. The family business began to struggle, and the son's father had to return from retirement to try to right a sinking ship. Eventually, that father was forced to attempt to reconcile, but his pleas were ignored. Despite his resolution to remain on the course he had set out on, the son couldn't help but wonder whether or not he should be accepting reconciliation, feeling the guilt of possibly decimating a legacy, tugging at him despite the betrayal. 

Was he wrong for his part in tearing apart his family and his legacy? Well, that's for you to decide for yourself.

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Author image for Brad Dickson Brad Dickson
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