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DISCOVER MAUI WOWI - REDISCOVER YOUR LIFE

Thursday, June 01, 2006
An Essay about Maui Wowi
Written by the Son of a Franchise owner and Director of Regional Support in New York

My son Nathan, who's graduating high school in a few weeks, just asked me to print out a homework essay for him. I think he tells the story of my Maui Wowi journey better than I ever have. Here it is:


“Dad”

Six-thirty, AM. It would be dark out, and I would be snug in my bed. I would hear him leave the house, shutting the heavy wooden door behind him. Hours later, I’d get up and go to school, get home, have dinner, and then get tucked in for sleep. Then, later on in the night, I’d hear the door open again, and heavy, burdened footsteps trudge up the stairs. That was the way of things when I was young. My father used to be the Vice President of a publishing company called CMP. He started his work as a journalist for 12 years prior, and worked his way up to the executive level. Quite the accomplishment, but he wasn’t happy. And neither was I.

We lived a very nice life-style. Upper-middle class at its best. We lived in a house just shy of a mansion, and we went on vacations every year. My mom had stopped working when my older sister was born, so the task of supporting a family rested solely on my father. He did an exemplary job of it. And while you might not think it, the cliché “Money can’t buy Happiness” was all too true in his case. He hated his job. He hated having a boss. He hated never seeing his family. He was sick of it all, and he had had enough. In 2000, he quit his job.

This shook the very foundation of my life, as I had been brought up on the philosophy that money was everything and a well paying job was necessary if you wanted to survive at all, much less support a wife and three children. Silently, I began to worry when my dad started looking around for other jobs, jobs I viewed as inferior. He desperately wanted to do something fun, or at least something that wouldn’t make him miserable, and would earn a good deal of money at the same time. For a time, I viewed him as a quitter, as selfish; “How dare he quit his job! How will we get by now with no one bringing home money? How can he think that family is more important than money?”. Interesting thoughts for such a young child.

He went through many similar jobs to the one he had just left, as he began to feel the squeeze of taking money out of his savings just to support us. He left them all after just a few months though, each time coming to the realization that it wasn’t what he wanted. Then one night he decided to look into franchises. With a franchise, he could be his own boss, he could make his own hours, he could work when and where he wanted to. He looked at many different franchises, such as Subway and other food services. One day while looking, he came across a fruit smoothie franchise by the name of Maui Wowi. He liked what he saw.

After a few months of research and meeting assorted representatives and franchise owners, he began his new career as a Maui Wowi Smoothie Operator. Words cannot describe how ashamed I was. My father, once a proud executive at the top of his company, all the power and authority he commanded, gone. Replaced by a floral Hawaiian shirt, a kiosk, and the ‘Aloha spirit’. It was hard for him, as well. He knew he wasn’t going to make nearly a fraction of what he used to, yet he kept with it and made it his focus. Slowly, after all the time spent with us at home, he became content and satisfied. He finally had a family that he could see whenever he wanted, and a job to support them.

It’s been roughly four years now since he’s started his business as a Smoothie Operator. I now work for him at one of the many locations he’s acquired in the tri-state area. I’m no longer ashamed, as he does the absolute best he can, and he’s home almost all the time so I can talk to him. He may not make as much money as he used to, he may not command an army of corporate underlings, he may not wear the suit and tie and wield the mighty executive briefcase, but he’s a success in my eyes. Money can’t buy Happiness, but we’ve got plenty of both, and most importantly, unlike when I was a child, I now have a father.

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