Cruel Business

denick

Just talking to some guys over the last few weeks and it has sunk in that our work as a business seems to take quite a toll on good people.
It seems down right cruel what it has brought about in the lives of some very, very good men young and old, their marriages and family's

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Nick

"Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving" Albert Einstein

dayexco

i lucked out with a very helpful, understanding wife. she knows what good times/bad times, long days are all about, and has always had a "special" meal and a cocktail for me when i get home if she thinks i've had "one of those days" i have an ex employee who wanted to strike off on his own. hey, been there, done that, never begrudge somebody for bettering themself. he was a great employee, but a worse businessman than me. biz wise, things went south for him from the get go. he started hitting the sauce, docs prescribed some pills for him. he started piling the booze on the pills. made for a real bad scenario. his business went south, his wife left with 2 little kids...not pretty. he's out of biz now, moved quite a ways away. think he was too embaressed to ask me for his job back, or other competition for a job. the underground biz can be very rewarding, or stab you in the ass. when my son graduated from h.s., he didn't want to go to college. he wanted to jump right into this biz. i told him that he had to bring back a college degree, then we'd talk. i felt that if he ended up hating the underground biz. that left him more options. from MY aspect anyway, he's been nothing short of a Godsend to me.

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someday, i'll be as patient as Nick.

PipeGuy

Sometimes within hours of each other.
It's been a big strain in my life and shows no sign of letting up. The scale of the capitital investment required to start-up (and run from day to day) makes going into this biz like grabbing a tiger by the tail - there's just no letting go without being eaten.

I had the opportunity to get to know quite a few of the local contractors through involvement in a trade group and I would say Denick's observation about the industrty is a good one. Divorce, substance abuse and health problems sure seem to be the rule (not the exception) amongst those that make a living in the dirt.

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Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for...for just such an emergency. -Foghorn Leghorn

K_Tile

I thought that statement only applied to flooring mechanics!

POOLMANinCT

honey, im not out drinking chasing skirts or at the track...
im working...