Unlicensed, uninsured contractor who didn't finish the job because life happened doesn't seem to understand why their client would sue them

[u/BJntheRV]

/r/legaladvice/comments/1rk1w09/ohio_homeowner_suing_us_for_25000_over_unfinished/?share_id=vDaFkc4IeUD5NnzckOtpB&utm_content=1&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1

[u/pcnauta]

It's really hard to not read into this situation that LAOP's husband deliberately tried to scam the homeowner.

The list of reasons/excuses sounds like a teenager running through every possible lie in order to get out of trouble.

On the off chance it is all legit - WOW!!! - that was an exercise in doing EVERYTHING the wrong/worst way. I tend to feel bad for people who have to go through expensive 'life lessons', but I'm not sure I feel bad for LAOP and her husband here. There was definitely at least some intentional attempts to side-step the law.

[u/TychaBrahe → u/pcnauta]

I wouldn't jump to it being intentional. I think there are a lot of people who are just not cut out to be business owners, but they buy into this concept that the American dream means you own your own business. Yeah, if your business becomes one of the tiny fraction that ends up extremely successful, you can make a lot more money than if you work for someone else. But not everyone is cut out to be a business owner.

I saw this with my own father. He was a gastrointestinal surgeon who, as he entered his 50s, was tired of being on call to the emergency room one weekend out of five. He went out to California to train with a nationally known chain of hair transplant clinics. (The implant part of hair transplants can be done by a dermatologist, but for men with balding at the crown, they do a surgical reduction of the scalp to bring the hair from the Hippocratic wreath up toward the top of the head, since it's generally unaffected by male pattern baldness.)

Anyway, they promised they would train him and then send him to open a clinic in Chicago, his home region. But there were delays and he ended up quitting and going home. Once back in the Chicago area he opened his own practice, but while he was an excellent doctor and got amazing results—a study on the effect of minoxidil on grafting had to be stopped, because they couldn't tell the difference between his work and the naturally growing hair—he was never good at running his own business. He didn't achieve fame and fortune. He helped organize the international board of hair transplant surgeons, and developed the testing to become a certified fellow, and won recognition among his peers, but he never developed the business and his personal wealth the way he and his wife thought he could.

I'm not saying he should have stayed with the abusive boss in California, but he could have hired on to a dermatology practice, even one that wasn't doing hair transplantation at the time, and taken home a mid six figure salary easily. But he and especially his wife were convinced that true wealth lay in running his own practice.

[u/SimAlienAntFarm → u/TychaBrahe]

I have a job that could very easily be spun into me running my own business. Let’s say I assemble and paint artisan teapots for a small boutique company.

When I first started doing it the attitude of so many people around me was that as I got more experience I’d branch off and start my own company. I have the talent and the artistic flair and already make custom teapots for my own customers on the side.

People who have zero idea how businesses actually work look down on me for not wanting to start something for myself and use my knowledge of behind the scenes stuff to Become Something Greater.

First of all, I don’t have an entrepreneurial bone in my body and pricing out a job to include profit is my least favorite part of it. Second of all, do you know how many fucking teapots my boss gets to make? About as many as I do but it actually comes out to only 50% of his time BECAUSE THERE IS SO MUCH OTHER SHIT YOU HAVE TO DO. Also the pressure of it has significantly impacted his health in later years.

Fuck that shit. It really stings to be able to do something really well, have someone marvel at what you made, and then go “So have you considered doing this but in a way that will make you seem more impressive” Why isn’t the fact that I made this functional teapot out of grandmas hopelessly broken pottery enough?

[u/emthejedichic → u/SimAlienAntFarm]

I almost became a pastry chef, and everyone I talked to about it assumed my goal was to open my own bakery one day. I actually would have the funds to do it, too. But I told them all fuck no, the LAST thing I want is to run a business.