Working with Family

Picture by Dennis Molla

I have heard plenty of stories of how difficult it is working with family. I sure have a lot to add on that front, me and my dad have been working on and off together for almost 20 years. It is rough, I tell you that much. I grew up hearing I'm the spitting image of him, no one can dispute I'm not his son and so forth but on the other hand, I'm so not like him. Personality wise we don't have anything in common. He is funny, I take things too seriously, He doesn’t fret, I stress a lot, He's too subjective, I'm too objective... In other words He's light, I'm heavy. I tend to come out too strong in the way I express myself and he tends to be too sensitive about my way of being, instead of understanding what it is I'm saying.
And I think over the years these differences have been made even bigger, it's like we inhabit disparate worlds of thought and we don't know which words to use to understand each other. Can you imagine how difficult that would make our day to day activities at work?

By being the way I am have closed off the door for big growth opportunities and I will tell you why: Throughout the years I have been able to deliver above average satisfaction to all of my customers, building a strong reputation and exposing my brand to a certain limited level. My experiences in life though have made me choose to build a shield around myself where my trust tolerance level is very low which presents itself as a huge barrier when it comes to leadership and makes it impossible for me to delegate new people to be part of this journey that is Davie Mac Tile. Another thing is is the fact that, by being so meticulous and serious about my work I tend to expect the same level of effort out of other people that would eventually work with me which I realize is unattainable and... At the end of the day I also realize it might be kind of unbearable to work with me... Well, my dad has been dealing with all that this whole time.
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He's been there. We've had horrible fights over the years but he's been present whenever I needed it. He's been there with his powerful lightness. Sometimes I wonder what's going to be when won't be able to be together anymore, how would we carry on? I hope that in my case, if he goes on first, I have had finally passed on to me how to be there for someone like he is there for me: regardless of anything.

Davi Santos
Tile Installer