Someone I met today was from Maui. She had taken over her dad's company and was now running the whole thing. I asked her how she felt about it, and she said she enjoys it, but she didn't at first. They're based in Kahalui, and do lighting for both commercial and residential.

I sometimes wonder about people who take over their family's businesses. Not the ones who want to or enjoy it, but the ones who don't want to. I know that when I watched some videos on Japan, it was almost an expectation for the eldest son(?) to do it. But nowadays, children want to do their own thing, or don't want to do what their parents do.

In some ways, this is sad, because there are some trades that are falling out of use as a result of this. Being a seamstress, plumbing, or even doing some obscure stuff manual labor jobs sometimes don't cross the generations. Even like cobblers. While automation is a good thing for production, there's something to be said about someone who has perfected their trade.

I mean, running a full operation is one thing. It's another thing if the business you're taking over is a one or two man operation. It's hard to want to do that, especially if you have aspirations outside of that. For the parents, they might be doing that job or business so their kid doesn't have it. Finding longevity and fulfillment is a strange balance that you have to find for yourself...