It was fulfilling and fun but honestly, it was so much work that I couldn't see doing it for long. I opened the place with 2 friends and we ran it for a little over 7 years. Then my dad took ill. I sold my stake in the business to my partners and left to care for my parents, until my dad was feeling better. That was 2 years ago. 17 years in the biz and I'm not sure if I really want to go back. I have 2 pretty good job offers available from friends but now that I'm out, I don't know... I kind of feel like Peter Gibbons in Office Space, "We don't have a lot of time on this earth! We weren't meant to spend it this way!" That life is rough, man. That's a shame about your friend. Mismanagement is the #1 restaurant killer. I've got stories that you wouldn't believe.
Haha, I bet you do! I think that's pretty big of you to sell your stake to take care of your parents; it's a lot to take on. 17 years is a really long time to be in any industry and I completely understand wanting a change. In fact, I am in the middle of such a change myself. I'm applying for grad school for 2015 and in the meantime, it looks like it's back to teaching ESL and working in bars to make money. That said, I used to live in Vietnam, teaching English and two of the people I met over there were an older couple who worked for the same school. They lived down the street too, so I got to know them pretty well. Bruce used to own a shoe factory and was very much a button-down business man for a really long time. Anyway, through he and his wife teaching in Vietnam, they were able to put their house in Canada up for rent and live the way they'd always wanted to. Another guy was teaching to earn money while learning tattoo removal in Thailand, since I guess that's a growing business in England. I don't know what your situation is, but if teaching abroad is something you might be interested in, I can put you in touch with some people and give some insight about how to get that all started. Teaching English abroad is great, it's just that I have my ambitions and I'd like to take a swing while I've got the energy. Teaching is something I'm sure I can always fall back on at any rate.