Family businesses have been a thing since the dawn of time, and there’s nothing wrong with taking on a family member’s business or learning from them.

In this story, we meet a younger man who grew up knowing his dad’s field of work very well.

Sadly, a more experienced man thought it would be okay to treat him like a mere “daddy’s boy” in front of everyone.

But he would soon learn how to treat younger men with respect.

Let’s see what happened.

The best revenge is your own success

My father had me working summers for his landscape company from about 10 or 11 years old.

I have to say, it is a solid my dad did for me, and I cherish the memories of working with all those adults and having them include me.

Plus, I had more money than the other kids at school, which was fun.

My father was (less so now) a hard man, but fair, and has a heart of gold, just to clarify.

That sounds like good parenting.

I grew up learning how to rake dirt, plant trees, and most importantly for this story, how to run equipment.

After graduating high school, I worked for my father full-time as an equipment operator.

However, we were somewhat seasonal, so for the winter my father hooked me up with a friend of his, a guy that we will call Larry.

He ran an equipment-for-hire company that mostly catered to a single pipeline company, but a few other clients as well.

The first 3 years of this cycle (landscaping in the summer and pipeline in the winter) worked out really well for me.

I mean, Larry was already a condescending person, but I barely saw the guy and I was getting paid, so all was good.

So far, so good.

It was hard being away from home so much, and I know it took a toll on my wife (married young, but that’s a different story), but we were saving for our first house, so I was happy to be in my situation.

One day Larry shows up on site, which was expected because that particular site was fairly close to headquarters.

He invited the crew out for drinks after work, which was unusual (I’m the only guy working for him) but hey, free drinks!

This is where it turns weird.

He spent the whole time trash-talking me and telling stories about how I was a “rich kid” and he gave me a job out of a favor, how I never earned my way, etc.

I tried to deflect all this shit and laugh about it, but honestly, I was mortified.

This is extremely rude behavior, not to mention humiliating.

On the ride back to the hotel he stops the truck and his jovial spirit hits a switch and says these words that I’ll never forget, “Maybe you just go work for your daddy and leave us real men alone. Get out”.

It was only a ten-minute walk to the hotel, but what the hell just happened!?

Turns out my father and Larry had a falling out about something that I won’t get into here, but I was mad to say the least.

It was only a month till we started up landscaping, and I had some money, but it was a little bit of a setback.

The thing that bothered me was the way it went down. I didn’t deserve that, being caught up in some petty little dispute.

It bugged me and I couldn’t let it go.

This is perfectly understandable given how poorly he was treated by this person.

Then I had a brain-child: why can’t we (my father’s company) do the same work Larry is doing?

Those machines sit around for 3-4 months of the year not making money, this is a no-brainer.

I obsessed on that idea for an entire summer, with every bucket of dirt that I moved.

To be honest, my father was not at all that excited about this, but I’m his son and he put his backing behind me. It was still on me to sell it.

The first (potential) client I approached was, you guessed it, Larry’s bread and butter. Because of 3 years there, some key employees knew my face and I got a small contract.

Things are about to change.

I subcontracted an excavator and a grader to them for the winter, and I was out there running the excavator and still doing all the administrative duties.

The next year, we subcontracted 2 excavators, 2 graders, and a trencher and my hours were even worse.

The next year we were the prime subcontractor to said company and started working with several other clients. I didn’t have to run machines anymore.

We’ve also expanded my father’s love and joy (landscaping) into some very large projects not possible before without the new iron.

Simply awesome.

I saw Larry in the office only one time, years ago. Pleasantries were exchanged, but I felt completely vindicated as he saw a 28-year-old ‘kid’ taking over his grumpy old market share.

And these days? Larry is still doing his thing, but he lost his biggest client to us. At this point, it’s beside the point; it’s history.

That being said… Larry’s rudeness was the initial inspiration for me to take what my father had built and run with the torch.

The best revenge is your own success.

An inspirational story!

Let’s see what Reddit has to say.

A reader expresses their feelings.

This person compliments the “revenge”.

Another reader chimes in.

A commenter shares their thoughts based on their experience.

Another compliment!

A masterclass, indeed.

Agreed!

You can’t argue with that.

I mean, I guess you could, but why would you want to?

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.