January 17, 2025 at 4:22 am

Bricklayer Worked For Awful Business Owners Until He Got Money To Build His Own, And Within Two Years He Put Their Company Out Of Business

by Michael Levanduski

Source: Shutterstock/Reddit

Working for a company with bad owners can be miserable, but it can also get you some good experience.

What would you do if the owners of the company were so bad that someone offered to loan you money so you could start a competing business to go against them?

That is what happened to the bricklayer in this story, and within a couple of years, he was able to put his old employer out of business.

Check it out.

Revenge of the Construction Workers

I am a teacher, and when I was younger, I would take summer jobs to supplement my income.

One summer, I worked for a bricklayer named Jerry and heard an amazing story!

I worked for Jerry in the mid 90’s, so the story either happened in the early 90’s or in the late 80’s.

Here goes:

The setting for the story was a community of small rural towns which had only only one brick contractor.

Jerry began his career as a bricklayer working for this contractor, a real jerk.

Why are some owners like this?

Jerk and Jerk’s son (adult working the business with his father) would harass, belittle, and humiliate all their employees on a regular basis.

No work was ever good enough and employees were told they weren’t worth what they were paid.

Not only did Jerk mistreat his employees; but, he was equally rude to other subcontractors and to the general contractors who hired him.

Since he was the only bricklayer in the community, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Needless to say, the turnover rate for the brick business was very high.

The only person that stuck with Jerk and Company was Jerry.

He sounds like a wonderful father.

Jerry told me that his father had instilled a self-confidence in him that Jerry could do anything he set his mind to do and that he should not evaluate himself according to what others said; but, rather by the facts.

Although Jerry was belittled by Jerk and Son as were all other employees; Jerry was becoming a very good bricklayer.

Jerry knew he was good; Jerk knew Jerry was good; but, Jerk didn’t know that Jerry knew he was good.

Not only was Jerry a good bricklayer; he was very respectful to the boss who disrespected him.

Jerk thought that Jerry was a naive pushover who was buying his head games.

That would prove to be a HUGE mistake on his part.

One day, Jerry was doing an exceptionally good job of laying brick.

Not only was his craftsmanship amazing, he was laying brick at a high rate of speed so that he was making his boss lots of money.

Of course, Jerk and Son were belittling his work as though he was doing the very opposite.

This scenario was being observed by the general contractor of the project.

After work that day, the general contractor asked Jerry to stay behind so he could talk to him.

As did every other construction worker in the community, General Contractor hated working with Jerk.

That was nice of him.

General Contractor told Jerry that he had heard Jerk and Son belittling him; and told him that he disagreed with everything Jerk was saying.

He asked Jerry if he had ever considered going into business for himself.

Jerry said that he would like to do that some day.

General Contractor then said that he would loan Jerry the money to buy a mixer (the most expensive piece of equipment needed to start a brick business) if Jerry would indeed start said business.

The only hitch was that Jerry would need to pay for the mixer whenever he could and that he would subcontract under General Contractor.

How exciting!

Jerry agreed to those terms and prepared to begin his new venture.

Jerry respectfully told Jerk and Son his plans and gave his notice.

The two mocked Jerry ruthlessly and laughed him to scorn.

Jerk told Jerry, “You’ll be back in two months begging to return to your job—you’ll never make it as a subcontractor!”

Two months later, rather than collapsing as Jerk predicted, Jerry was still in business and going strong.

One year later, Jerry’s business was booming and a drunk Jerk showed up at Jerry’s house and begged him to come back to work with Jerk and Son.

“Jerry, you’re the best employee I ever had.”

Jerry replied, “Why didn’t you ever tell me that when I was working for you?”

Jerk couldn’t answer the question; and, Jerry obviously didn’t accept the offer for employment.

No surprise there.

Two years after beginning his entrepreneurial adventure, Jerry heard that Jerk and Son went out of business.

Jerry said that he never intended to harm Jerk and Son when he accepted General Contractor’s offer.

He said that looking back on things he realized that he had become Jerk’s greatest nightmare.

I can’t say that General Contractor intended no harm!

I thought the most amazing thing about the story was how that Jerry maintained his self-esteem in spite of all the ridicule.

I also gained a respect for Jerry’s father who instilled an unshakable self-confidence in Jerry!

Great job Jerry!

I am sure everyone in the area is happy with how things turned out.

Let’s take a look at what other people in the comments have to say.

Yeah, more common than not.

Source: Reddit/Pro Revenge

Absolutely, he hit the ground running.

Source: Reddit/Pro Revenge

Now that would have been funny.

Source: Reddit/Pro Revenge

I wish more people would learn that lesson.

Source: Reddit/Pro Revenge

No doubt about it.

Source: Reddit/Pro Revenge

That’s a beautiful way to start a business.

Nothing like a little revenge to get things going.

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