Father Pushes Son on Right Path (John Newman Commentary)

At Presidents Advisory Group, my CEO roundtable, several members are thinking about retiring and whether they should pass the company to their children. I was on the receiving end of such a decision 25 years ago.
My father had a small but lucrative accounting firm catering to Hollywood stars. He was starting to think about retirement while I wondered about taking over his firm.
Accounting was a late career change for my dad. He had been an executive with CBS in New York City for two decades. When CBS chose to start a film company, he moved west to become CFO of the new division, Cinema Center Films.
Five years later he reported to headquarters that despite some box office successes (“Little Big Man,” “Rio Lobo”), Cinema Center was a financial disaster. He suggested shutting it down, and CBS did. They offered him a position back in New York, but by then my parents had gotten used to the California sun.
He left the corporate life behind and took up auditing movies for the stars. The top players had begun to demand a percentage of profits from their movies, not just a fixed fee. The production companies, wanting to minimize their payouts, tended to favor themselves in the calculations.
The audits found large sums for the stars and healthy fees for the auditor.
The firm thrived, and when Newsweek investigated Hollywood’s financial shenanigans, my father was the expert it quoted. He was finishing his career making more money than ever, while building a marketable firm. On the other hand, the day-to-day task of auditing was dull, and working in a four person accounting practice was a far cry from the upper echelons of a large corporation. He assumed he would sell the boutique firm to fund a comfortable retirement, presumably to a large firm that could guarantee payment.
Then one day I asked him, “Dad, what would you think about my coming to work at your firm?” (Implying: “…and taking it over when you retire.”)
Two years earlier, at age 30, I had graduated with an accounting degree from the University of Arkansas, moved to Los Angeles, and found work at a traditional CPA firm. I made the moves, to L.A. and into public accounting, to broaden my professional experience, but they were both intended as temporary.
With CPAs in my lineage as far back as my immigrant grandfather, I saw the value of obtaining my CPA license, but knew I did not want to practice accounting as a career. Anyone who knows me knows the fast pace and glitz of L.A. are contrary to my style. At some point I wanted to return to the sanity of the Ozarks.
Without knowing it, I was on a path that would lead to the turnaround work that has been the thrust of my career.
Then one day my friend Walter suggested to me, “Have you ever thought about going to work for your father?” Wow. Of course — I would be a fool not to do it. Easy money. Work with the stars. What else could I ask for? It was the low hanging fruit, like discovering a sexy rich girl living next door. I assumed my Dad would love the idea. In my naiveté I thought, What could be better than to pass on your work to your son?
So I asked him, and he replied, “What would you want to do that for? It may seem glamorous but the work is boring.” Ouch. That was the whole conversation. A few years later he sold the business to a large firm, and we never spoke of it again.
I buried the hurt and moved on, leaving public accounting and California.
I found my niche doing turnarounds and moved back to Fayetteville. My dad loved to visit. He would talk about moving to Fayetteville himself, as he admired the relaxed small town life I had carved out for myself.
Today, thirteen years after his passing, I am like an archaeologist, trying to uncover the meaning in his two short sentences.
When I dig, I hear my father saying, “However this job appears, it is not that great. I want better for you.”
I also hear, “This is my retirement and I do not want to risk it on you. Besides, you are too late. I am ready to retire and at best, it would take several years to teach you the business.”
But mostly he supplied a kick in the pants that said, “Son, you have your own path. Get yourself back on it.”
And for that I am forever thankful.
(John Newman of Fayetteville leads turnarounds of troubled companies. E-mail him at [email protected].)