I'm sure many people have spent their youth working with and for their parents, from chores to summer jobs. My story is similar: my dad (Neal) and I (Mason) have spent countless hours working together, mainly renovating or maintaining rental properties. I learned much over the years in terms of new skills that I still use today, but now, more importantly, I learned how to work best with Neal. Working together within the bounds of RCW has changed our usual relationship as it is now equal partners, and even though he knows more of the woodworking side of the business, I am running the front end.
Working together has been fantastic, and after a full year of putting up with each other, I'm happy to say we both are still enjoying it daily. Especially as we started this near the tail end of covid restrictions, I hadn't been able to spend much time with my parents before RCW. Now I can see my dad daily, and I'm in much better contact with my family. There are, of course, the ups and downs where you may not be having a good day. But even when we are frustrated and mad at each other, we have learned that it is best to talk it out so that we can at least both know where the other person is coming from and what is causing the problems. If we didn't communicate like we do, I'm sure one wrong table build would have ended RCW long ago.
For those others who are planning on starting a business with their family or, more specifically, with their father, I would recommend doing so as my experience has been fantastic. Getting to learn all the skills from my dad and then sometimes getting to boss him around is all I could ever ask for.
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