The Family Business by Shant

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My father, Richard Bradford, started his own investment firm when he was in his twenties. The firm was now getting ready to celebrate its 25th. anniversary.

My father had built a very successful business. Starting with just three workers, the firm now had over 50 employees. My father was president and sole owner of the company.

To my father, image was everything, especially when it came to representing the firm. The firm had the reputation of being dignified, very professional, and very successful.

Dad was known as being a great guy to work for, and didn’t have any problem hiring the best people, as the company continued to grow.

I had grown up with the proverbial silver spoon. I was an only child, and I was given nothing but the best in everything I needed or wanted. I attended the best schools. My father insisted that I was always the best dressed of all my friends. When I turned sixteen, he bought me a really great sports car, and every two years, I would trade it in for something new.

I knew how fortunate I was, getting to grow up in such a fantastic environment. I really respected my father, and he and I had always had a great relationship.

Every once in awhile, I would have to tell myself not to get too inflated an ego because of everything we had. I had done well in school, but so far, all that separated me from most people was that I had wealthy parents.

I had just completed my master’s degree in finance from a major university. Unlike the majority of graduates, I already knew that I had a job waiting for me. Dad and I had talked for years about my entering the firm, and one day becoming president when he was ready to retire.

A few weeks before I started working at the firm, he and I went out to dinner to celebrate the occasion.

"Evan, I can’t tell you how happy I am that things have turned out the way they have," Dad said. "It has always been my dream that I would have my son take over the business when I retire."

"I’m sure you understand that at work, I can not treat you any differently than anyone else. If I were to show any favoritism towards you, it would undoubtedly cause resentment amongst the other employees."

"I don’t want you to think that when at work I’m ignoring you. It is very important that you make the best impression with your co-workers as you can. You want people to realize that you are successful due to your work ethic, and not because you are my son. That is the way you will earn their respect."

"You have a great future ahead of you, but you need to be aware that your actions will determine whether or not I can appoint you as my successor. You signed the same contract as everyone else and you will have to abide by the same rules that they all do."

"Don’t worry, Dad. All I’ve ever wanted to do was get to work with you. I promise that I won’t let you down."

When I signed the contract agreement, Dad took me to his tailor and had four suits made for me. "Consider this my graduation gift to you," he said. "I want you to look like you are one of the best dressed people at the firm."

I began my job and had been working for almost a month, and I thought that things were going really well. I got along fine with everyone and everything appeared to be going smoothly.

One day, Dad stopped at my desk and told me he wanted me to come by his office at closing time. I didn’t think anything of it, figuring he just wanted to talk about how things were going.

After everyone had left for the day, I knocked on Dad’s door and entered his office.

"So, how do you think things are going so far?" he said. "You did a good job on that investment deal you had one of our new customers sign. I’m hearing good things about what a good job you are doing."

"We do, however, have one situation that needs to be dealt with, and it pertains to you not following the grooming policy that you signed. Your appearance is not up to the standard that I have always insisted workers must agree to follow."

"Do you even own a comb? When you come into work each morning, it looks like you just get out of bed, run your hands through your hair, and never even bother to comb it."

"Your hair is always a total mess and you have so much of it! You have hair sticking out in all directions. On the sides it looks so ragged. No one has hair that looks anything at all like your hair. It is not the image that I want for this firm."

"You sit yourself down in that chair and I’m going to comb your hair and see if we can make it look more presentable," he said. My dad had cut my hair until I entered high school. After that I went to a stylist.

I figured if I just played along with him, he would comb my hair and tell me that’s how he wanted to see it look when I was at work. It didn’t seem awkward at all having him comb my hair if that would make him happy.

I decided the best thing to do was just humor him, and nothing really would come of this. If he eventually was going to choose me to be president of the firm, I’d let him comb my hair every day if that was what it took to keep him satisfied.

"You want to comb my hair, Dad?" I said with a big smile. "Sure, go ahead. Let’s see how you can make it look. It’ll be fun, and will be just like old times." Little did I know how true those words were going to be.

Richard was really looking forward to combing his son’s hair. He also knew he was going to do a lot more than just comb it. Evan needed to be taught a lesson, and needed to realize he had to be a lot more serious about working at the firm, especially if he wanted to become president one day.

It had been a long time since Richard had cut Evan’s hair, but he had already planned on how this was going to go. He took a wide tooth comb and starting at the front, combed all Evan’s hair straight back. His son really did have beautiful hair.

Getting to comb his hair brought back a lot of memories when Evan was growing up. Richard spent quite a bit of time combing his son’s hair. He enjoyed getting to run his hands all through his thick, long hair and thinking about what he was going to do to it.

Once it was combed and didn’t look like such a total mess, it looked so much better, but it was way too long. "How long is that hair of yours?" Richard had a tape measure in his desk and combed Evan’s forelock straight up and measured it. It was over eight inches long.

"Your hair is twice as long as the grooming policy allows and all that hair you have on the sides and back is probably three inches longer than you agreed it would be when you started working."

"I’m sorry, Dad. I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had time to make an appointment to get it cut."

As Richard continued combing Evan’s hair, he said, "You really do have great hair. It naturally parts down the middle, but it also looks great parted on the side."

"You’re lucky, you got your mother’s hair. It’s almost exactly like her’s, only she doesn’t have all these fake blonde highlights all through her hair like you do. Why do you have them, anyway? You look more like a pretty boy instead of a serious young business man."

"Look around the office. No one has fake highlights. You’re going to need to get rid of them." As Dad said this, I felt him lift up my eight inch long forelock, and in the blink of an eye, he chopped off four inches!

"Dad! What are you doing? You’re not cutting my hair are you? Please don’t cut my hair. I love my hair! I promise that from now on, I will always show up at work with it combed perfectly in place and I’ll immediately make an appointment to get it trimmed."

"Too late for that," my father said. "Don’t worry, I won’t cut all your hair off. I know how fond of it you are and I’m just going to give you a haircut that is more in line with the other guys that work here."

"Evan, I hope eventually you will come to understand that I am not doing this to punish you, but I’m doing it for your own good."

"You look around the office tomorrow and notice that not a single guy has hair touching his ears, and no one has hair much more than three inches long on top. Everyone, except you, has a slick, polished looking haircut."

"Everyone at the firm looks professional. You stand out, and in the worst possible way. I’ve had a couple guys that I’ve worked with from the very beginning of starting the firm ask me what was up with all that hair you have?"

"You signed a contract that has a mandatory grooming policy, yet you walk around and make it seem like it does not apply to you. You’re breaking your agreement, and you need to obey the rules like everyone else. You really don’t want people to think that you do not have to follow the rules because you’re my son."

"I also want you to think about how serious your actions reflect on you. You need to be working as hard as you can. You want people to like you, but more importantly, you want them to respect you."

"That’s not going to happen with all this hair. How would you feel if members of the firm opposed you becoming president when I retire simply because you had such wild looking hair and broke the rules when it was convenient for you?"

Evan couldn’t believe that his father was actually going to cut his hair. He knew that he sometimes took a little advantage, believing his dad would let him get away with some things. This was definitely not going to be one of them! He also knew that there wasn’t anything he could do about it. If he wanted to continue working at the firm, he had to "clean up" his act.

Seeing that he had already cut four inches off the front, Richard decided he would take down the bulk on top first. "You just sit there and relax, and I’ll give you a smart looking haircut."

Richard continued working at the front, and section by section, he lifted up a beautiful thick lock of Evan’s hair and cut off four inches. There was hair falling everywhere. As he worked his way towards the back, he took off a little more so that everything would blend in together.

Once he finished taking down the top, Evan saw his father reach into a drawer in his desk and pull out his electric clippers!

"Please Dad! Don’t use the clippers on my hair! I haven’t had them used on me since I was in junior high. Do you really have to cut it that short? I would really hate to have so much more of my hair coming off!"

"I told you to relax, son. It’s only hair, but I want you to see how I want it to look from now on. You have needed a wake up call, and I decided this was the best way to do it. You’re still going to have a good looking head of hair when I’m finished."

Richard put his hand on top of Evan’s head and pushed it downward. He had placed the #2 guard on the clippers and he placed them in the back, and with one quick swipe, eliminated between two to three inches of hair half way up the back of his head.

Evan was really beginning to freak out and was almost in tears. He loved his hair so much and this was the shortest it would be in over ten years.

Richard then placed the clippers at the bottom of Evan’s sideburn and ran them up to about an inch above the top of his ears. Evan had freaked out when his father was buzzing the back, but he could not see how much hair was coming off. This time however, he could see all the hair that was coming off, and the haircut was still not finished.

All that Richard had left to do was blend the sides into the taper and the top. He started at Evan’s temple and lifted up a beautiful lock and took off about two more inches. Richard was really having a great time giving his son a haircut, and he felt certain that Evan had learned his lesson.

He then slightly wet Evan’s hair and took his brush and brushed the sides back and brushed the top with a slight part on the left, and brushed it up and back to the right. It really did look good.

When he finished, he handed Evan a mirror so he could see how he now looked. It was a huge shock at first, but Evan realized that his father really was only looking out for him.

What had just happened really woke him up, and he realized that it was a good thing that it had happened. He knew that he should not just take everything for granted.

"I hope there are no bad feelings now between us," his father said. "You know that I only want what is best for you."

"No, Dad. I’m actually glad that you did this. I know that I need to start taking things a lot more seriously and I should not just take everything for granted."

"You did a good job cutting my hair. I actually really like it. Maybe I’ll get rid of the stylist that charges me $75 for a haircut and have you cut it from now on, that’s if you would like to do it."

"I’d really enjoy doing that," Dad said with a big smile. "Like you said, it will be just like old times."

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