Worries.

[pyrephox]

My father wants me to come work at his store after I graduate. 'Only occassionally...maybe on Saturdays', he says, when I fully plan to have a 40-hour-a-week job being a school counselor. 'And if you get tired of the counseling thing, you'll have something to fall back on'. He wants to leave me the store.

...

I appreciate the work he's put into it. I know he's given this thing all of his heart, and worked hard to make it a viable thing. But I hate retail. I can't sell anything to anyone. I hate retail with a deep and abiding loathing. I went to graduate school largely so that my chances of ever having to take a retail job would be reduced. I just cannot do the kind of perky-helpful-seller that a person needs to be a successful salesman of any sort, and I know /nothing/ about automotive paint, anyway. I would be both miserable and a failure.

I have no idea how to decline this without hurting my father's feelings. No matter what I do, he will take it personally. Sigh.

Comments

[undauntra.livejournal.com]

Marry someone who loves retail to run the store for you?

[archangelbeth]

A bit more seriously than the marriage bit (which is traditional! for, um, some tradition...), could you suggest that you know how much the business means to him, and you know how bad you are with people -- and you want the business to succeed, not be run into the ground by your bad people-skills?

The other option would be to see if you had any talent for the management side of it, so that you could hire people to do the actual selling.

Best of both worlds, find some way to do a 51-49 split with someone who does want to be the apprentice...

[cpip.livejournal.com]

I think Beth may have something there: pointing out that it's not something you're good at, or that you're interested in, and that you wouldn't do a very good job at the store, let alone owning it.

[bimmer1200.livejournal.com]

Is it possible it's not so much he wants you to work at the store as he just wants to spend some time with you and his request and offer is just his way of saying that?