Petr
From “I want to get away from my father” to a 50/50 joint venture
How it began
Petr’s father owns a sizable business and has one son. His hope was understandable: after working in the family company for years, Petr would grow from an engineering role into technical director and eventually take responsibility for the entire business.
His son wanted something very different: “Please help me find something as far away as possible from the family business and from my father. My dream is to earn at least $500 a month on my own from some startup of mine.”
The father and son wanted fundamentally different things. At first glance, this was an exceptionally difficult brief.
His son wanted something very different: “Please help me find something as far away as possible from the family business and from my father. My dream is to earn at least $500 a month on my own from some startup of mine.”
The father and son wanted fundamentally different things. At first glance, this was an exceptionally difficult brief.
The conversation that started it
Petr’s father took a thoughtful position: his son’s happiness was the absolute priority. “But let us at least try to show him the advantages and opportunities that he could gain by finding his place in the family business. Then he can decide for himself.”
His father did not want Petr to understand five years later what he was trying to explain today, after another five years had already been lost.
The main obstacle
Petr was not rejecting business itself. He was rejecting the role he had been given: years as an engineer in his father’s company, without an area of responsibility of his own and without the sense that this was his choice rather than a decision made for him.
As long as the role remained unchanged, every opportunity to grow within the company sounded like “going even deeper into the place I want to leave.” That is why the dream of earning $500 from his own startup mattered—not because it was a large amount, but because it would be entirely his.
As long as the role remained unchanged, every opportunity to grow within the company sounded like “going even deeper into the place I want to leave.” That is why the dream of earning $500 from his own startup mattered—not because it was a large amount, but because it would be entirely his.
The turning point
Six weeks after the program began, Petr approached his father with a proposal of his own.
“Dad, I have been rethinking a lot. You have never had enough time or focus to launch the new production facility at our plant. Let me lead the project. We can do it together, fifty-fifty: I will manage it, and you will provide the resources. If it works, I will gain the capabilities I need and bring the facility to its target performance within a couple of years. Once I have built that experience, I will work toward becoming technical director and eventually leading the entire business.”
Without pressure, the son arrived at what his father had hoped for from the beginning. But he arrived by his own path and on his own terms. It had become his project, not an assignment from his father.
Where Petr is today
Today, Petr is leading the launch of the new production facility as an independent business line and building a path toward the role of technical director. His father gained not an employee who had to be persuaded, but a partner with motivation of his own.
