A few days ago, we had a scare.  My father collapsed in the backyard while I was out with my eldest son.  My wife called me and an ambulance and they brought him to the hospital.  I feared the worst.  He’s survived cancer nearly 20 years ago, but his heart is not in the greatest shape; he smokes a pack a day and has no form of exercise.

The year prior, my mother had a stroke.  Thankfully, hers was minor and did not impair her.  She said that the only problem she experiences is that her memory is worse than it ever has been.  I joked and said that there are advantages to a bad memory: I can always tell her the same jokes over and over again and she would always find them funny.  So a heart attack or stroke was foremost on my mind as I rushed to the hospital.

It was a coincidence that a few weeks ago, it dawned on me to ask my father if I could help him automate his business.  It would take a load off his mind and enable him to do more things, as well as help me and my siblings eventually take over for him.  After he arrived here, we sat and discussed how the system could be built.  After verifying his reports, I laughed at how deceptively simple the system is and wondered how, eight years ago, how I could completely miss it.

Eight years ago, my father had an idea to begin to computerize his business.  I had just graduated college and he asked me for some ideas on how to make his business more self-sufficient using a computerized system.  He gave me all his ideas on what he would need, and I looked at all the reports that he sifted through day-in and day-out.  I couldn’t make heads or tails of where to begin.  So I suggested getting some software companies to do some quotes.

He went through 3 different consulting companies, and he let me read their bids on how they would approach the problem.  Each system would have cost him tens of thousands of US dollars paid for in Philippine pesos.  In terms of the cost of living, a single US dollar can pay for a pretty hefty fast food meal complete with sides and a drink in the Philippines.

After reviewing the specs, and some of them proposing creating a pretty hefty multi-terminal Intranet installation, I thought to myself, “These are professional software programmers and systems engineers, they should know what they are doing,” and simply nodded on the price.  My father, being much wiser, simply let the proposals die.  He kept the pen and paper system of his business and simply refined the processes.

Looking at those same reports only a few weeks ago, it amazed me how simple this system would be to create.  What would have taken tens of thousands of dollars and more than a year of development time in those proposals, would only take me a few months part-time.  When I told my Dad how funny I thought it was, he smiled and said, “That’s because you’ve really grown a lot.”  I cannot express how proud that made me.  I kept thinking of that when I rushed into the Emergency Waiting Room to comfort my mother until the nurses let us in.

When the doctor finally met us with the test results, the doctor said it wasn’t a heart attack or a stroke – that he simply just had low blood pressure from dehydration and heat exhaustion.  To put it simply, he fainted.  Thankfully it was nothing more.  He had been climbing up and down a ladder and fixing things around the house.  It was fortunate that he wasn’t on the ladder when he fainted, otherwise, he may have been seriously injured or killed.  He was discharged later the same day.

This evening my mother was chiding me about my job – at how much work I have to do everyday.  But she encouraged me because we should always seek stability and I am very much needed at work.  I love to give my mother a hard time and said, “If I’m always seeking stability then that means I’ll never be an entrepreneur.”  My Dad was quick to correct me saying:

“Being an entrepreneur is the most stable job you can have.  You can never be fired except when you retire.  And if you are really good, you can always be a consultant even after that.”

I stand very much corrected.

I remember when I was in college, in anger I once told him that I did not want to be a father like him.  Yet as I have grown and become a father myself, the more I find that I am more like him everyday – right down to the ridiculous working hours and entrepreneurial spirit.  And I am damn proud of what I have become.

Thanks, Dad.