My Career Fable

By Jim Longacre

In 1972 I was 21 years old and working with my father in his auto parts business. It was summer, and I was on break from my studies. That August, my father had a sudden fatal heart attack, leaving me in charge of the business and the head of a family of five, with three much younger brothers still in school. I dropped out of school, and found myself running a business I knew a little bit about, having only worked there on summer vacations through the years.

It was a big struggle, not only financially, but emotionally and mentally as well. The business management classes I had taken gave me some of the basics to work with. Most of it I learned "hands on" by working day to day. Naturally, mistakes were made, the most serious regarding extending credit to people who didn't deserve it. I learned to make a decision and have confidence in it. Unfortunately, I never did get back to school.

In 1993, I realized that 21 years of my life had gone by. My brothers had grown and were off on their own, and my mother had remarried. I was never happy in the auto parts business. I found it very emotionally and mentally stressful and most importantly, unfulfilling. I did not love what I was doing. I started having stress related problems, and I came to the realization that “I could walk out, or I could get carried out.” So I started thinking about selling out. It was frightening because I felt I was uneducated and therefore limited in what I could anticipate doing with the rest of my life. It was scary because I started thinking "what if this happened?" or "what if that happened?" But I decided I had to do it. I knew that I had to get out.

Once I made the decision, I immediately felt better. I was letting go, but I felt in control. Soon thereafter, I heard that the Wishing Well Nursery was for sale. I knew almost nothing about the nursery business, but I knew I could learn. I am again learning by doing, and loving every minute of it. I did not realize it at the time, but by selling the auto parts business, I was setting myself free. Free for the first time in 21 years. Free to find something where I could be happy.