I think all family businesses are difficult and fraught with problems because you have that family relationship to get over. But my dad has been so supportive, we've managed to work around that.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
People who build family businesses are not classically trained. They have to deal with an enormous amount of politics. You think corporate politics are tough? Go work for your dad or your mom.
I had a very difficult relationship with my father, which ended up okay, but there were many difficult years.
My relationships with both my mother and father are good. We spent several difficult years hashing over the problems and the past, and worked out a fairly solid middle ground. I wouldn't say my relationship with either of them - they're no longer together - is exactly typical, but that would be difficult after all we went through.
I have a dad-ager. My dad is really good at the business end of things. But it's really a family affair. My mother handles all my social media stuff - Facebook, Twitter, e-mails, that kind of thing.
All my kids have worked in the family business. I've been successful at that. My family knows how to work. We all started working very young.
My parents were divorced when I was a young teenager, and I was raised by a single mother after that. So, I understand the difficulties that families have. I understand single parenting.
I think every family is dysfunctional, and some manage to control it better than others.
I went into the family business. To me, it was the norm and not the exception.
Some people found it difficult to understand my relationship with my father, but that may have been because they couldn't get beyond their relationship with their own parents.
My dad was a terrible father. Dreadful. But he had a very difficult childhood. He was fostered - he never knew who his father was. So he had a very different attitude to family and kids. I don't have any issues. I'm not suffering some secret angst.