At the station I was paying Milan good wages, and Jana helped part time with the bookkeeping, for which I also paid her. I covered my mother’s health insurance as well. Milan was an excellent mechanic and a reliable worker, but he had no interest in the headaches that came with running a business. He was strictly 8AM to 5PM.

At one point an opportunity came up to buy an established car repair shop in Weston, and I was able to get a loan for it. My idea was that Milan would run the repair business while I continued managing the gas station, sending all the heavier repair work his way and keeping only oil changes, tires, and light work at the station. It seemed like a natural fit. Milan was not interested at all.

That left me with 2 choices. To make enough money to support my own family I would essentially have to let Milan go — but that created a problem. I still felt responsible for my mother’s wellbeing, and at that point Jana had a young child and needed my mother nearby. I also did not want to spend the rest of my working life as an auto mechanic. So I offered Jana and Milan the chance to take over the business instead.

By that time the legal landscape for gas station leases had changed significantly. New laws had been passed preventing oil companies from simply kicking out lease holders — the owners now had the right to sell their lease as a business. I had a good relationship with my Shell representative, who liked me and helped me prepare for a meeting with his boss to force the transfer of the lease to Milan and Jana. With his support I succeeded, even though the boss had someone else in mind for that station and was not happy about it. He agreed.

I made a deal with Jana: I would give them the station, and in return they would take care of my mother. They also agreed to let me take enough money from the business to live on while I looked for work as a computer programmer.