It really tears me on the insine. My dad was not around too much when I grew up and I always felt I did not matter for him. He was an entrepreneur who was always working. A real workaholic who would spend 12h a day at the office. According to his own words, he now owns 5 million in real-estate property. I always respected him for working hard and being successful.
A few years ago I got an idea for an IOT product and decided to spend every second available to build it. It took me one year of grinding to build the first prototype and manufacture first 1200 units of the product.
With the first version of the product I started a company and it was the first time my dad paid any attention to me. Needless to say, It felt good to have his attention and approval.
My dad offered to help me run the business. He was supposed to handle bookeeping, sales and customer support so I could focus on building and developing the product. He also gave me a 10k loan. I gave him 20% of the company because I tought he was really going to help me a lot. Initially he wanted to have 50% right there on the spot. In hindsight, that was a red flag.
Soon I get a call from the tax office. They cannot let us in goverments prepayment tax register because of my dad had some unpaid tax. The problem was that he is a part of the coverning body of the company. Only option is that he loses his right to represent the company. At the same time I hear he has borrowed 40k from my grandad. He is caught lying to me and customers many times.
At first I give him time to figure things out but after 4 months there is no improvement to the situation. I have been given a green light for a 100k bank loan to the business, but now they wont let me take it with my dad being on the board of directors. I ask him ro resign from the board and I revoke his rights to transfer money in the new bank that gave the loan.
My dad asks me to give him rights to trasfer money in and out. I decide to hold him from having access because I suspect him of not being honest with me. Eventually this escalates into a fight and I have to tell him I don't trust him enough. After that he wants the loaned 10k back. I pay him back.
After a while I notice our customers prefer to call me about everything even though I am not responsible sales or support. At this time, I start taking responsibility for most of the work he issupposded to do. At this time he is clearly not reaching out trying to find new customers. Oftentimes, he is not picking up the phone when existing customers call. I know this, because our existing customers tell me.
Around christmas my dad tells me to hire an accountant because it is too much work for him to do our bookkeeping. I see he stopped doing it after he his position in the board. I also notice he has done mistakes on purpose to cut the amount or work needed. I tell him and he says the mistakes don't matter.
I feel like my dad is not giving a shit about me again. Instead he is just fleecing me. I don't trust him at all anymore. I had hoped that working together would fix our relationship as a father and son, I honestly don't want him working for the company any more. Should I ask him to do the right thing to completely step off and return the 20% stake in the company?
