teach me how

Even though my father wanted me to go into business, he never got me to feel the same kind of excitement he felt about his work. I knew he was proud of his work and he was always excited by the prospect of opening new restaurants. I had seen him, in the middle of the night, sitting there, with ruler and pen, drawing and redrawing the draft of the floor plan of his newest restaurant. I knew he was busy.

Yet he never took me by the hand and said, “You see how fun and worthwhile this is?” He would not have said that because his work was not that fun. I realized this after I got older, when my father and I talked less and less.

Even if his work wasn’t fun, he still could have taken my hand and showed me how to develop the strength to work even when you don’t feel like it, how to put on that heavy business attire under the Hong Kong humidity, how to endure waves of financial pressure, how to contain elation in times of success, how to sustain relations with friends and business friends and how to differentiate them, how to read people, how to strike, how to defend, how to pay for a bill in a restaurant before the other person grabs the tray.