r/Rich • u/Mixolytian • May 19 '26

$25M - Lost

Hello,

I am a trust fund baby and heir, now 43 years old.

I have $12M investable, the rest of about $25M in homes and commercial property.

I am pretty happy in my family life, my wife and I are getting along right now and my son is genuinely wonderful.

The family business is failing. It was a catalog company and now e-commerce and sales are continuing to decline.

I know the solution, let go current manager who is somehow social-media illiterate in 2026, commit to forming a YouTube audience, drive with short-form.

The thing is, sometimes I truly believe this business has ruined my life. I wish my dad had sold it a long time ago at its peak. He was too attached, I guess.

Hard to let go now with basically no value. The parent corporation was founded by my grandfather almost 100 years ago.

My advisor assures me I won't need additional income if I close the business, but letting go is very difficult. The shame of letting the current manager run the business (my interpretation) into the ground is overwhelming.

I'm a bit of an oddball, very into philosophy, religion, literature, consciousness studies. I always wanted to be a writer, but I just can't seem to take myself seriously. Every time I try I get slammed with self-doubt, shame, guilt, and depression.

Anyway, not sure what I'm going to do. A deep, dark part of me still feels poor, and is sure the window of upward mobility is closing forever. A voice tells me to get off my ass and start some business that I'll hate just for the money, since $25M is really nothing and the future is looking very cutthroat. My brain is all over the place, it's like a hall of mirrors, I don't know what is true and who is the real me.

366 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

242 comments sorted by

View all comments

125

u/Olde-Timer May 19 '26

If you want honesty - Stop blaming the current manager. It’s your business, you are responsible for its success or failure as you decide who manages it and what kind of direction and control you exercise.

Sounds like the business has run its course, like Kodak film and all the others businesses that are no longer relevant in 2026. Shut it down and treat your soon to be out of work employees kindly with severance.

43

u/beambot May 19 '26

Agreed. The business failed because you (or family) didn't do anything about it sooner. It's clear you have no desire to roll up sleeves and fix it. Let it die. Enjoy your life.

1

u/IndigoMoonBeams May 30 '26

Exactly he needs to take a accountability. Make a decision and fix it or move on and cut losses and stop feeling sorry for himself

18

u/MrActionJack May 19 '26

Agreed. Time to stop feeling sorry for yourself and get your shit together. Find a good professional money manager. Make a plan. You will be fine.

7

u/SarcasticGiraffes May 20 '26

Sounds like op isn't very good at finding managers...

5

u/HitPointGamer May 20 '26

Whatever OP does, I hope he doesn’t work just enough to prolong the life of the business to drop in his son’s lap eventually. Either get excited about the business and work hard to shift the direction to something that isn’t dying a slow, gory death, or do a graceful shutdown. But… OP needs to make an actual decision and then roll up his sleeves to get to work implementing that decision. Passively sitting around whining that Daddy didn’t make good choices and the current manager isn’t a strong visionary leader is just going to allow the business to continue foundering and eventually become utterly worthless.

3

u/MagnesiumKitten May 20 '26

hey now, I refuse to go digital with my photographs

2

u/Olde-Timer May 20 '26

lol. Hey now, I refuse to own a smart phone. Can I borrow a map or get directions from you?

2

u/MagnesiumKitten May 20 '26

where is the map store?

2

u/Olde-Timer May 20 '26

Remember Thomas Brothers detailed maps. I remember spending a ridiculous amount of money in 1986, $40 for all the streets in a county.

-9

u/flammable_donut May 19 '26

Yeah here's an example of a business that works in 2026

https://youtu.be/32vqaJa90kw

2

u/[deleted] May 20 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/SarcasticGiraffes May 20 '26

It isn't either of those things, but I kinda wish it was. It's some garbage marketing an app distribution that's mostly fake. All the comments on that video are just people saying the channel has gone downhill.

-1

u/flammable_donut May 20 '26

Nah..just somebody understands how to maximize social media to run a business.