A man turned to the Reddit community seeking support after a dramatic family fallout began when his father handed over the family business he had devoted nearly two decades of his life to.
The 32-year-old explained that after being passed over in favor of his brother-in-law, he severed ties with his family entirely and launched a rival business, which is now thriving while his father’s shop struggles.
“I’m 32 and I’ve been working at my dad’s car repair shop for 17 years now, since I was 15,” he writes. The shop had always been portrayed as his future, and in recent years, he had been running “basically everything” while his father remained the face of the business.
He recalls how everything changed four months ago at his father’s 60th birthday party, when extended family gathered to celebrate. “He announced that he’s stepping down and retiring and handing over the business not to me but to my d— brother-in-law, who literally never worked a day in the business,” the post explains.
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He says his father instructed him to “show him around and teach him everything I know,” despite his brother-in-law having no experience in the industry. When he asked about his own role or whether he would receive any share of the business, his father reportedly confirmed he would not.
His father justified the decision by saying it was about securing his daughter’s future. He wanted his “only daughter left to be secure and to not worry about the future.” The man was devastated, especially when he learned his new role included a demotion and a $15,000 pay cut.
“I got mad and yelled at dad that he’s a lying b——,” he recalls. “He said that all the paperwork was already done and that the business is now 100% my brother-in-law’s and told me to take it and shut up.”
After walking out, he immediately began working on opening his own shop, leveraging the industry connections he had built over the years. “I had enough savings to start a new rival business and so I did,” he shares, noting that most of his former colleagues joined him.
He also began reaching out to long-time customers, many of whom chose to follow him to his new shop. The post continues, “I started making calls to our customers and slowly I’ve been taking them away.”
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Meanwhile, his father’s business quickly began to decline. “My dad and family are all furious with me… I don’t care,” he says bluntly, pointing out that his brother-in-law “has no clue what he’s doing” and the shop has been struggling without him.
The situation reportedly deteriorated to the point where his father had to come out of retirement to work on cars himself, something he hadn’t done in a decade. “They don’t have the cash flow to bring new guys in,” he adds, noting that he had taken most of the employees with him.
Recently, his father reached out, sounding “old and tired as hell” and begged him to return. “He said the business is failing bad and that it’s his and my legacy and I just said good, I want them to suffer and I want that business to go bankrupt and die,” the man admits.
He reminds his father that for years he worked unpaid, sacrificing personal opportunities to grow the family shop, under the belief that it would one day be his. “He told me that thousands of times,” he explains, only to see that promise broken.
His father reportedly screamed at him on the phone, but the man hung up. Since then, his sister has been calling him “every name in the book,” but he remains unmoved.
His own business, meanwhile, has exceeded expectations. Despite hiring additional staff, he claims he’s had to turn away potential customers due to how busy they are.
The only thing he says he is grateful for from his father is the experience that allowed him to succeed independently. “When I started my own [shop,] I knew exactly what I was doing,” he adds.
Still, he admits a small part of him wrestles with guilt when he thinks about his father’s legacy. “I remember as a kid watching him open his shop alone after working for someone else and I remember him putting his entire life into it,” he recalls. It leaves him wondering, “Was I too harsh and should I have reacted differently?”
Many commenters rallied behind him, with one summing it up: “Your dad didn’t just hand the business to someone else, he disrespected nearly two decades of your loyalty and work. You owe them nothing, you built your own shop, and that’s your legacy now.”
