Hi Jane..................
I want you to know, first of all, I have the utmost respect for Joe and his talents as a designer and in your [as in all of you in your family] business. Joe and I have gone to the mats many times and it always boils down to the same thing..... stubbornness. However, he tends to let it affect his whole outlook on me or wherein I'm connected, while I have not let my feelings for our differences affect a business relationship here on the boards or in business.
I really don't know how or where to start this, but I feel it's something maybe that's necessary from a different point of view.
More often tha I'd like to admit, I've gotten PM's and e-mails from other members about Joe's approach to things and it always sounds about the same. Again, I don't want to pry and I don't need any answers or hard feelings, but you came into it and I think you might wanna know. I've tried to explain certain things to Joe as to how it is in my life business-wise and personal-like..... on and off the site. In fact, down at Atlantic City one time, I told him I hoped there were no hard feelings. We shook hands and that was it. Otherwise, he basically, in a nice way, tells me to go pound sand, which is how he approached this thread. Honestly, I'm only trying to help a talented kid from making mistakes which could sometimes come back to bite him. Most people have said things about him as being immature and naive in his thinking. Not that his thinking or decisions are wrong, but show a lack of experience or judgement from a personal standpoint. He's been catered to..... still hides behind the apron strings..... he'll learn when he grows up, wait til he gets into the real world and other comments have come in from different people. Some, of who you'd never believe it came from. I was actually dumbfounded on a few. The many e-mails I get about other members is usually normal, but not for Joe.
I'm telling you this becasue just the other day, a friend of my son told me something in confidence about Kevin, which he held me to a 'between you and me' kinda thing. Actually, he started with one thing and then another until he ranted about maybe 3 or 4 things. Well, I thought about it and finally after a few hours, when I got home that night, I had to tell my wife. I wasn't betraying Kevin's friend, but helping Kevin by my wife and I having a heart to heart talk with him and trying to reason with him. Kevin is 50, so it's not like I'm talking about an impressionable young guy or someone needing more eduction, but the things we talked about hit home like a ton of bricks on Kevin's mind. He said he never realized this stuff, but heck, after 50 years of living life one way and your friends tell your parents something, you do tend to stop and get a reality check on things.
Please Jane, take this in the meaning it was meant and maybe not as... who or how it was said. I know I'm not a very good messenger sometimes, but my thoughts and actions are true. If you don't say anything to Joe, that's fine. If you think I'm full of shaving cream, so be it. I just wanted to tell you this as I got another PM from someone just this morning about this and when you got on there, I thought I'd share.