CEO vs Alcohol

I'm an ARA (addiction rehabilitation advisor). I went to college to get a masters in psychology and social services. This took me into working rehab centers, helping struggling addicts kick their habits. I learned a lot from all the places I worked and gained the skills that I later took with me as I started my own clinic. I ran a small clinic and helped hundreds of people to help them escape their addictions. But I really didn't like helping 10 people a day, because it was not giving them as much time as needed to get them over the finish lines. It was frustrating to me I would just get into their issues and the appointment would end. I needed more time to make a difference and this clinic wasn't working. I met my wife working there and she had just received her Masters in the same field, I gave her the first job outside school. We work so well together and ended up married 5 years after she started.

We had a son, and he also followed our lead and became a therapist and now also works with me and my wife and our little clinic. I have been doing this for the past 35 years and I wanted to try a different approach, not just working on the addiction from the addicts' point of view but get down to the family and job issues to gain better insights on the best treatment for my patients. Me and my wife had many discussions as to making this a reality.

We had already saved enough money to start our new one-on-one treatments, so I sold the small clinic I owned. Purchased a small mansion and had it remodeled. We had suites for 10 clients and worked solely for corporate rehabs. These were for executives that had become addicts to drug and alcohol and of course sex. This was a niche that nobody was serving at this point, It was done on the quiet so it would not get back to the public to hurt the company's reputation or stock prices.

We took in clients from the top companies in the United States and our success records were in the 90% success without falling back into their addictions for at least 5 years. Our methods were different from most rehabs. We treated the family as well as the affected addicts. This only made it easier for them when they returned to their daily lives. I was turning 60 and it was time for me to retire and enjoy the second half of my life with my wife.

I turned the operations over to my son and went on a month-long cruise with my wife, it was definitely needed for the both of us. When we returned home, I had a message left on our home phone to call a former client. He was one of our first success stories and he told me I could ask him for anything because he credits me for saving his life as well as his marriage.

I made the call, he needed my help, I explained that I was retired, my son would be more than happy to help him, but I could hear the desperation in his voice, he just wouldn't listen and just kept talking. He pleaded for help, it wasn't for him but for his son. He had been grooming his son to take over his business for several years, but he couldn't leave it to him due to the alcohol abuse his son was going through. He talked to his son about it, but his son didn't think there was an issue with his drinking, like most addicts they are always the last to know it's was a problem. His work was suffering, his home life was falling apart, but he couldn't see any of that. After a long talk and an offer of an absurd amount of money, I told him I would investigate the situation.

I got some information from him and told him I needed to see his sons office, I also needed to spend a day with his wife before I would even meet with his son. He approved and would let me know when his son was out of town so I could look at his office. I went on Friday afternoon and walked into his son's office it looks as if he was still in the college dorms. Sports posters, sports memorabilia, a couch that has been slept on very recently and a small bar in the corner of his office. It looked more like a place to impress his friends and not clients. He was surrounded with an office of a man that wasn't ready to be a CEO, maybe not even be a middle-aged man. He was 37 and looked to being acting as if he was in his early 20's. He was out of town on a business trip, so I was able to spend Saturday with his wife.