Overcoming the Death of a Business Partner

“He was an investor, and we were cousins. When he [died] it was difficult, because we were both guarantors on loans. I had to sit in front of all the banks and figure out how to go on. We had obligations and employees to pay and projects to finish, so we were forced to carry on. You can’t decide that the sky’s going to fall, because if you ever get that attitude, it will. 1988 and 1989 were really bad years for us—’89 was probably the blackest of the recession—and it didn’t help that the financial partner [died]. His loss made it that much more difficult. We just had to get lean and hunker down and try to live through it. I dealt with all of the fallbacks, and I didn’t have to file bankruptcy. Our company got small, but it didn’t go away. Now it’s back, with bigger projects than we’ve ever done before.”