Today, I’m heading back home to visit my parents and help them with a major life decision: they are selling the final piece of the family business. It all started with my grandfather back in the early 1950s who saw a brilliant opportunity in gasoline distribution. More and more individuals were able to afford automobiles and gas stations were popping up everywhere as a response to this trend. As a result, he became a very prosperous businessman who would later add to his modestly-sized gasoline bulk plant and build his own gas station (conveniently placed near a newly built interstate highway) in the early 1970s. In the mid-1980s, he built another service station not too far away.

My dad has been involved in managing the business since he graduated from college in the early 1970s. It started with delivering gas; I still remember riding with him in the big truck when I was just a little tyke. Over the years, my dad’s role naturally evolved. In the early 1990s, my grandfather decided to step aside leaving dad as the legal owner. However, this was about the same time that the business started to seriously decline. First sign was the decision to get out of bulk distribution as we were getting squeezed by much larger competitors. Then, the second (and newer) service station was starting to bleed money and was sold. All that’s left is the original gas station and now it is being sold.

The story behind the decline of the business is a familiar one to small business owners. As I reflect on what’s happened over the past 15 years that’s brought us to this moment, I see some cautionary patterns emerge. I doubt any of these will come as a great surprise to successful entrepreneurs.

Don’t piss off the gods. My grandfather has an irascible personality and has been known to tell people who get in his way to kiss his ass (compound this with my dad who tries to please everyone). Unfortunately, this includes folks who could make life easy or tough for an independent businessman. Naturally, they helped make it hard for him and Dad to sustain the business when times grew tough.

Don’t focus on a tree when Wal-Mart comes to bulldoze the forest. The writing of "your business is going down the toilet" was really on the wall when the giant moved in across the street. At first, it seemed like a good thing to have them: customers could have their cars serviced while they did their shopping. Then, Wal-Mart decided to sell gas. And then another discount gas retailer moved in next to them. So, while they duke it out with each other, the family business suffers the collateral damage.

Don’t start hacking off limbs to save the body. The time for innovation isn’t when the shit hits the fan. When it was apparent that the business was failing, my dad looked to anything that might give it a boost. After the first one didn’t quite work out, it was time to start hacking away things. First, it was hours of operation and downsizing; then, it was services, Now, there’s not much left but a bloody torso.

I don’t offer any of this as an indictment of my father’s business acumen. He’s always tried to do the best he could to manage the business he inherited. I always thought that he wished he could be doing something else, though. I guess this is what really drives me and my philosophy toward work and our career decisions. I’ve seen how unhappy my dad has been toiling at his work and how unfulfilled he’s been by his decision to enter the family business. For a while, I thought he was an isolated example, but when I started working I saw the familiar signs all around in co-workers.

So, I need to go and head for the hills. Perhaps I need the break, too. I’m still waiting to hear from a couple of companies about whether I’m the right candidate for them. Hopefully, one of them will see that I’m ready to get started, ready to contribute in fresh ways, ready to passionately bring myself to the work that I do. All I know is that I’m ready.