Wealthy Guys Who Do a Good Job - Did They all Work Their Way Up?

I was thinking about the wealthy business owners in our town. Most that I know started as a sole prop or whatever, in the business they grew. I don't know of any who went to college for management or however that goes. Not that that might be a bad thing.

Have any of you guys worked for a good boss who did not necessarily earn his whiskers the hard way? Or is that even possible?

I have never worked for anyone else (except washing dishes as a kid and bartending in college)

Seen it both ways. Worked for a self made millionaire when that was a lot of money. Genuine A Hole. He abused everyone except his wife. Also worked for family companies that made trust fund kids. Mom and Pop were great to work for, kids were like Genuine A Hole above. I worked for a small dealer at one time who started out driving trucks. He was great to work for. Thought I might like a management position with another company and moved on. I probably should have stayed where I was at.

My best job was working for myself. My problem with that is that I never got rich and my boss was a Genuine A Hole.

I know 2 second generation buissness owners that are some of the best people to work for they just have high standards

I worked for one guy that was second gen college educated decent to work for but he kinda played favorites with people 2 other guys worked there that had degrees he took much more serious as managers than me and another guy that had no degree so if I floated an idea through a guy with degree it was much easier to accomplish

I have also worked for a a few self made aholes but not for very long

I find it comes down to what people's motives are if there money first then it can be an abusive environment if they balance the work and money and people it tends to be a great experience so it's all on the individual perspective

I work for 3rd gen, slowly transitioning over to the 4th. The old fella started things up in 1945. In fact I think we still use the shoulder spreader, or road widener he bought. His son, practically ran things into the ground with poor spending, shoddy work, and dishonest employees. At one point when he drank heavily, crews would pave driveways on weekends, and pocket the cash. He built a huge shop, that the local DOT bought from them. They can fit all the county graders, plow trucks and still have room in it. He bought a couple asphalt plants, that they later lost. I think at one time I was told, he bought 25 michigan loaders in one season.. Once everything came to a head, the oldest brother of the 3rd gen, went to Alberta to see the middle brother. He had taken a civil tech course, and was working out there at the time. He was talked into coming home, and getting things set straight. He set things right, and 43 years later, we are a successful grading and paving company, with a good reputation. He is straight shootin, treats all employees the same, is well known, president of the New Brunswick road builders association. Hand delivers the envelopes at Christmas. He has bailed out a few guys, including myself, when times were tough.. He's 67, and almost cripple with his back, and only has one child, and she is a lawyer. The oldest brother has 2 boys, and they take on more responsibility all the time, but the big guy still holds the strings. Time will tell how things go.

It's fairly simple to figure-65 to 70% of wealth in this country is inherited. 85% of those didn't or don't appreciate what they have or how they got it. The ones who grow a
business from scratch and don't get a taste for money is only about 5% of the 33% that's left.

Pretty normal these days.

I've worked for a bloke who had been a truck driver and started his own contracting business. Just before I left he had 70 employees and could design and build subdivisions without employing any subbies, every thing was in house. If the likes of the pipe crew was down a labourer he would fill in but the leading hand still ran the job.
A much bigger company saw that he was becoming a threat so they rocked up with a cheque. He looked at it, laughed and tore it up, then told them to get serious or get gone. The cheque was for 14.5 mill.

I don't know where you got your figures TS, but depending on who is doing the figuring, commonly accepted amounts are 1/4 to 1/2 of wealth is inherited. Look at a list of America's richest. Most of the top spots earned it themselves.

None of the billionaires earn anything by themselves. They were supported by those on the ground floor who did all the actual work. They were also supported by huge tax breaks and incentives that they bought from politicians looking to stay in power.

I would also be interested in anybodies figures on this topic. In todays media, any unsupported statement is a lie.

Two of the wealthiest men I've known (one passed last year) made it from the ground up. Not sure what their net worth is but it's 6 digit millions.

One went from a framing carpenter to owning 1/2 of the county where I live. Started a real estate company he sold to a Berkshire Hathaway unit back in the early 2000's. His estate owns commercial buildings and land all over a 3 county area. The last time I saw him we had lunch together and he told me was considering donating his farm in south AL to the Big Oak Ranch which is a non-profit that helps wayward kids. Really salt of the earth guy.

The other 1/2 of the county is owned by a fella that started renting moving trucks, then built mini-storage. Now he owns property all over the place. I don't know him as well just in passing.

However I did work for his son once on the son's mini-storage property which earned him on our fired client list, what a disaster. He would measure the 2:1 slope we cut with a 4' level and a tape measure calling out where the slope was 1/2" in or out... Even had his father come look at it while we were there finishing up. Dad said - "There's nothing wrong with that slope you need to grass it and get started on your building!". Finally fired the son as every time we had a meeting on the little job he always started into the "your taking advantage, charging too much, etc, etc" even though it was a bid job. Fired the son and never looked back.

terex herder said:

I don't know where you got your figures TS, but depending on who is doing the figuring, commonly accepted amounts are 1/4 to 1/2 of wealth is inherited. Look at a list of America's richest. Most of the top spots earned it themselves.

Click to expand...

Pretty simple-a high percentage of retiree's played the stock market in the last 25 years. They die early in many cases leaving some fairly large sums or a piece
of property they bought for next to nothing years back.

The owner of the trucking company I work for spent 13 million to buy it for his son. The guy who delivers
our oil-his dad retired son has it and business hasn't grown. Three neighbors-one his mother owned a tavern
and a string of rentals-he hasn't punched a time clock in 45 years. In my area farm after farm handed down
{which in some cases is good and some real bad}. I don't have enough fingers and toes to count how many
people that are in business in my area only because it was given to them, few earned it. And it shows.

While an entirely different subject, the handing down of a family business can be a way to carry on a family tradition, golden handcuffs, or a just plain millstone. Sometimes the older generation won't allow the next generation to do the things that are required for the business to succeed in an ever changing business environment. Other times the next generation really wanted to pursue a different career choice, but continued the business to be the dutiful child. As a result they are in a situation where they have no passion or enthusiasm and the business shows the results.

How businesses change through the generations
First one starts it.
Second one grows it
Third one squanders it


Lost count on how many times this happens

Its funny this subject has come up. This last February my largest construction company I do repair work for did a major restructuring of upper management. The business was originally formed by the old man many years ago. His oldest son (which is the main man I have always worked with) has run the company for years and is at retirement. He has 2 sons, one of which (the youngest) has been the second in command the last 7-8 years. The father and son have completely different views on about everything having to do with their business. The father wants to keep their niche in the business where it is (50 mil on average). The son wants to grow and be competitors with the really BIG boys (300 Mil +).

So, back in February, I was told they were moving ALL the offices to a 4th floor office building in downtown Tulsa. The father was going to "fall out" and leave the business for his family to run. The son that had been working with his dad decided that he didn't want the responsibility of being the CEO ......decided that he would take the CFO position. His older brother, which is a private jet pilot his whole life, is now the COO...........but will still fly part time. They brought in their sisters hubby (brother in law naturally) from California to be the CEO.............he and the new COO previously mentioned have ZERO experience in the construction field.

Let me tell you. Talking to the super's on the jobs......they are extremely nervous for their futures and the future of the company. I cant say I blame them........The new bosses are spending money with reckless abandon. It doesn't help the employees moral when its been difficult for them to get raises and really good benefits, seeing broken machinery sitting for weeks because they dont want to spend the money on repairs, and ALL the new bosses are driving $100K company trucks bought in the last 2-3 months.

I have a really bad feeling about this.

I can't put a like on your post because I've seen it before. The people that get hurt are always the ones who really built the company. The top end just pull whatever money is left in the company and go on to something else. Stay flexible and mind the accounts receivables with them. Sometimes the wreckage makes the sale of the company a bargain for someone else to purchase.

I left one important item out of my post #11. The owner and son are from Idaho-a right to work state. Because of that they think Idaho wages are ok to pay in
Washington state. Which ID is considerably less and wonders why he can't keep drivers. But the benefits are good he says and I've told him you can't cash medical
insurance at the bank.

Ok I am second generation in a family buissness and fourth generation in dirt work my dad worked for my grandpa who sold his buissness abou 10 years before dad started his

The worst thing that happens in any family or multi generations buissness is a lack of diversity in experience meaning go make it in the world a couple years and then come back

I spent about 10 years working other places and learned more about buissness cause it made me aware of what I knew it also made me aware I was not open to new ideas and in my experience that kills a establishment fast

Most generation hand offs happen when the oldest pulls the plug and says here is all the reins and the Bill's goodluck it's going to cause major issues in small lessons no one was exposed to cause the elder insulated that part from junior and never made them learn everything before bailing out so they dont know all required to make it go

In most cases in my experience is by the time 3rd generation comes along buissness is far enough along that the 3rd generation never need the personal relationships with customers and employees that make the difference in tough times so when times get tough by market or bad management they dont know how to relate to people money is one thing but relationships keep work coming in and employees employed in any market

So what motivates a person money relationships reputation or ego doesnt matter what size or what field you're in those 4 reasons will dictate how an establishment will run and what the next generation is going to be taught

The bigger you are the harder you fall. My dad always referred to kids who work for the family business SOB's (sons of the boss). When he was 1/2 owner of his business they had a policy not to hire relatives. Some family businesses the son or daughter really work hard to preserve the business and others treat it like a gravy train. Miller Electric (welders) is an example. The Grand daughter took it over after the owner passed and turned it into the huge company it is with lots of help from others. It wasn't sold until after she passed away. Ashdowns Hardware in Canada was the biggest hardware store in Canada. The son of the owner ran it very successfully until 1970 ,I believe, when he passed away. None of his kids were at all interested in running it and it was sold to competitor Acklands.

Know a Honda M/C shop that sold out after 49 years. Kids became part owners but the dad still wanted to do things the old way. Apparently being bought out was a saving grace as they owed a bunch of money. It was the best Honda shop for years but after the owners brother in law (25% ownership?) retired/sold out the service dept. went way down hill. It's weird driving by the building which is now for sale. It was a staple for 40 years. Odd for a Honda dealership to not be able to make a profit. Cousin of owners runs an independent MC shop and would get parts from them. He's swamped with work and the Honda dealer is sending mechanics home because lack of work. Something is really wrong there. The owner was offered the (exclusive) Honda car dealership way back when and turned it down because he wanted to concentrate on M/C's. Now that was a huge mistake!

Worked for several Family Owned business over the years, none of which have survived well. Most trucking divisions I worked were inherited from FIL or Father from the early 20th century passed down to Son/SIL where did OK, then to Sons and daughters at the last who had to split it apart and attempt to make gazillions by cutting 'Expenses' as wages, benefits, numbers of personnel and finally not replacing aged machinery while whining of the repair expense. The quarries were developed early on in the 20th century as roads were stone covered dirt then swapped to Concrete then added asphaltic concrete overlays to secondary roads. Stone has had ups and downs, quarries either had good materials or borderline crap and stayed somewhat in business, these are now selling to conglomerates, old hands that knew how to set a blast line or how to categorize stone layers now lean on Engineering staffs several offices away with dog and pony show employees shaking their heads the way the CEOs want them to. Last of the big quarry masters here were the Mertens, bought out and owned several up to a dozen in five counties at one time, being bought out by Capital Quarries now where they will close pits and centralize to their own pits for materials, prices WILL rise.

Parker Refrigerated truck lines was a going concern because the owner started it from a low level, timed his equipment purchases correctly and most of all
took real good care of the equipment. His son took it over, only took two years and in the hands of the receiver. That's what after hours activities caused in excess.