Josh grew up in a small town in North
Georgia. He was relatively athletic, but was more into tennis and
wakeboarding than team sports. His dad, William, also grew up in North
Georgia. William had a job working at one of the carpet manufacturers,
but his real passion was fishing, and he developed a knack for making his own
lures. His friends that he fished with saw his fishing success and hoped
that the lures might have something to do with it. William started making
lures for his friends in his garage, and after several years, was selling them
on eBay. The lures became very popular, and a friend of Williams
approached him about turning William's hobby into a business. With money
from the friend, and William's lures and reputation, the "lure"
business grew into a successful company selling several lines of products for
the outdoorsman.
At first Josh wasn't that
interested in his dad's business - except for the fact that his company's
success did allow the family to own an above average wakeboard boat. Josh
took full advantage hosting his high school buddies for hours of fun at the
lake.
But as Josh begun
considering colleges, he recognized that his dad's company might offer him a
place to land when he graduated. He elected to go to a technical school
to study process improvement and advanced manufacturing techniques. He
had seen how time intensive it was for his dad to make his lures and knew that
the cost to produce them could be less with a better process. He studied
hard and made good grades. On the weekends, when his dad was out fishing
with friends, he would spend hours in his dad's workshop exploring what
materials his dad had used to make the lures and pouring over pencil sketches
of lures stored in one of the drawers in his shop.
In one of his final classes in college, Josh had to redesign a manufacturing
process for an existing product. Without direct help from his dad, Josh
used everything he had learned from his dad's shop and in college to redesign
the manufacturing process for a new fishing lure. Josh hoped that his
commitment to the project would help secure a place for him in his dad's
business.
After graduating college with honors, Josh got with his dad to present the new
lure manufacturing process. His dad listened intently and was pleased
with his son's work. Then Josh asked his dad if he could be the Director
of Manufacturing for the lure side of the business, promising to reduce
production costs by 20% within the first year. William looked at his son,
but didn't respond. A growing feeling of rejection started welling up in
Josh's stomach. It was so strong that he thought he was going to puke. He
didn't know whether to bust out crying or scream in rage. "All of
that work. All of that time. Wasted. All for nothing.",
he thought. Finally after what seemed like hours to Josh, but was
probably only a few seconds, his dad said, "Josh, I love you so
much. I will help you find a good entry level position in the right
company - whether it's my company or another company." Josh couldn't
believe it. "How could you do this to me, your own son, after all I
have done?" His dad replied carefully, "I just wanted you to
come fishing with me."
(Disclaimer: While
this parable is mine, the idea was completely inspired by J. I. Packer's Knowing God.)
