Student File 3Y-2RM
Seymour H was a typical young man about town. His father, Martin, had made a fortune in upholstery fabrics in N ew Y ork C ity. The relatio n sh ip b etw een M artin and Seymour was a close one because Seymour’s mother had died when he was still a young child. The two loves of Martin’s life w ere his business and Seymour. He spent every waking mo m ent on one or the other. Consequently Seymour had all the money he wished to spend—and did in fact do his best to spend it. Martin didn’t really object to this; he was fond of saying, “He’s living the life I would have led at his age if I ’d had any money.” M artin always resisted Seymour’s requests to let him come in and learn the business. “You’re only young o n ce,” and sim ilar re sp o n se s w ere M artin ’s re p ly to Seymour’s offers of participation.
Gradually the purposeless life th at Seymour led took its toll. F irst he broke his ankle on the ski slopes of Mont Tremblant; this was followed by a series of minor ailments, all of which exacted a price from both Seymour and Martin. While Seymour was hospitalized, he became interested in our course; and fairly soon began to think about his disabilities in a new way. He realized th at in order to balance his life he would have to get a job. As soon as he was able, while his ankle was still in a cast, he approached his father on the subject. Martin refused to give him a job, even the most menial one in the business. He could not see th a t Seymour really needed to work to balance his life. Finally father and son had the first serious quarrel of their family life. Seymour made up his mind to go out to the w est coast and prove to Martin th a t he could indeed make it in the business world. He found th a t this was not as easy as he had anticipated, though he did have a good talent for selling. A fter he had been on the w est coast for some time and was beginning to be successful, he got a call from Herschel, M artin’s factory manager, to say
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th a t M artin had been rushed to the hospital, and could Seymour come in to take charge of things? Seymour took the next flight east. He w ent straight to the hospital, where Mar tin assured him of his own immediate retu rn to work, and urged him not to get too involved.
W ith Herschel’s tutelage Seymour quickly learned the basics of the business. He found th at his w est coast experi ence was very useful in dealing with the customers, and th at the running of day-to-day m atters could be left to Herschel.
A t Seymour’s retu rn from the coast, Martin recovered rapidly, and with his recovery tried to take over his former role in the business; however, the fact th a t Seymour had dem onstrated such good capabilities and was obviously far healthier and happier than he had been when he was living in enforced idleness made M artin reconsider his previous insis tence th a t Seymour act the p a rt of a playboy and ‘enjoy’ himself—on M artin’s term s.
F a th e r and son worked well together in the business, though Herschel had to be the buffer while they worked out their precedents. The lightening of the load on Martin and the new happy relationship with his son pu t fresh life into the old man.
Since Martin now had more time to himself, Seymour encouraged him to get his life fully rounded. This became a fairy story in the making. Martin m et an attractive widow, Susannah, and fell head over heels for her. Becky, her only daughter, had an equal impact on Seymour. M artin took his new bride off on a world cruise, while Seymour stayed at home with Becky to run the business. While in Scotland, Mar tin got involved in the production aspects of some of the finer woolen fabrics and felt th at he would like to start a new busi ness in this field. A t the young age of 55 he is now the presi dent of a small exclusive woolen fabrics concern, and Seymour is running the old business, having quite overcome all the ailments he had while he was ju st acting the playboy. Because Martin’s new business is not really a full-time occupation, he and Susannah do a great deal of traveling and enjoy the jet- set activities available in Europe. The last time we heard from these friends, they had w hat they referred to as a “re-
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verse generation gap” going. M artin has become the swinger and Seymour is the hard-working businessman. Our last let te r warned them most seriously th a t they could overbalance in this direction too; w hether or not they took any notice of the warning we don’t know, for we have not heard from them for several years.