This was going to be easy. We would buy an inn, we would make it pretty, we would open our doors. Voila! We didn’t consider the late night and early morning texts, the tense “discussions,” and frankly, the tears. I guess that might be true for any start up with a business partner, but when your partners are your family it can be a tad more intense.
I am the blogger, so I can write this from my perspective. I gave into everything, I did the most work, I am the creative genius…but really that wasn’t the case at all.
I do have to warn you, Sister Two told me to “be nice.” Doing business with your sister, older or younger, with your parents monitoring (hovering, even though we are both in our 50’s) is a challenge. We are both strong, independent women who have exceptional instincts. We are used to compromise in our careers, but not always in our personal lives. Well, that had to change with the start of the Inn.
Although we’re born only 16 months apart, we are different. We do not look the same, we focus on different things, we have led vastly different lifestyles. It brings conflict—that’s the bald truth. It also brings this wonderful medley of ideas and a closeness we haven’t really had before. We think we have seen the best and worst of each other, but I am not sure that is the truth.
This Inn is our “child,” and with that comes a different kind of closeness. When you are growing and nurturing a business together you have to figure out how to get past the conflict—no more flying Diet Coke, no more kicks through the screen door, no more forks in hands—to resolve and move forward. It’s not easy. I am a crier, when I am angry, sad and happy. She is stoic. I believe that the universe has its own plan. She likes to grab the universe and tell it to get back in line. After 50 years, I didn’t appreciate that you could learn more about your sibling than you already knew. Did you?