Chapter 13 - Prescott Paid What It Owed Without Anyone Losing the Company
The finishing-facility acquisition did not happen in January.
Not because I destroyed it.
The board delayed it.
Independent chair? They didn't have one. Let's establish. After the truth about Lexington surfaced, the employee-trust representative and outside accountant pushed for a governance review.
Reasonable.
Prescott had survived too many major decisions through:
family instinct.
The review found:
no fraud,
no hidden accounts,
no falsified minutes,
no theft.
It found:
weak governance.
Richard had too much influence despite no longer running day-to-day operations.
Rebecca had commercial authority without enough independent challenge.
My old finance role had concentrated too much responsibility.
The board had approved big moves without:
formal risk thresholds.
Lexington had been:
collective failure.
Exactly what the records showed.
Richard hated the phrase.
Eventually accepted it.
The company created:
two independent board seats.
Rebecca remained:
president.
Not because correcting the past meant:
firing her.
She had real strengths.
Sales.
Relationships.
Team loyalty.
She also had weaknesses.
Margin discipline.
Risk appetite.
She hired a CFO who reported directly to:
the board on covenants and liquidity.
That annoyed her.
Good governance often annoys somebody.
The finishing-facility deal was renegotiated at:
a lower purchase price
with seller financing.
Prescott did not need my note deferral.
My scheduled principal payment resumed.
Approximately:
$385,000 that year.
Then another scheduled amount the next.
No company collapse.
No employees laid off because:
Daniel chose boundaries.
By mutual agreement, Prescott refinanced the final redemption balance into a bank-supported term facility the following year.
I received:
what the contract already promised.
No windfall.
No revenge premium.
No accelerated penalty.
When the final wire arrived three years later, I stared at it for perhaps:
thirty seconds.
Then transferred part to:
investments
and put part toward:
Noah’s college savings.
Emily asked:
“How does it feel?”
I thought.
“Boring.”
She smiled.
“That’s good.”
It was.
Money had stopped being:
a family emotion.
Prescott belonged to:
its owners.
I was no longer one.
My father was:
my father
or not
based on how we treated one another.
Not based on:
note balances.
Rebecca was:
my sister
or not
based on choices outside:
quarterly EBITDA.
That separation took us almost a decade to learn.
It should have happened when I left.
Instead I carried a financial umbilical cord while pretending:
distance.
May you like
No wonder nothing healed.
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