Shoveling Shit, Fixing Pipes,

Julian was born into the family business. It’s a semi-famous family business. We’ll get to that.

In his industry, Julian is a legend—a living king. People ask him for selfies. Pretty good for someone who was once shoveling raccoon shit.

Julian's grandfather started the company, and things were good. His father ran the company and things were not. Sales slowed. Quality suffered for costs. Their peers sold out to roll-ups. Julian’s dad did too.

The facilities were gone but the business lived in Julian.

That’s when Julian bought his shovel. Over the next decades, he spent his inheritance rebuilding the business. The work was hard. Money was tight. When Julian’s wife took the kids to the pool, she made them peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat in the parking lot rather than the expensive chicken tenders sold at the concession stand.

Julian's facility was so old raccoons took up residents. He scared them off and cleaned it up. The pipes broke constantly. When something broke that he couldn’t fix he asked for help, drawing on the goodwill built up by his father and grandfather.

One day, among all the shit shoveling and pipe fixing the phone rang. That roll-up conglomerate still had inventory from their acquisition. Would Julian like to buy it back?

He almost dropped the phone. Hell yeah, he would.

In some industries, an old product is out of fashion. In some industries, it gets better with age - like Julian’s whiskey.

That inventory held something great. After bottling, Julian’s pour scored 99 out of 100. No product had ever done that well.

Julian P. Van Winkle III is the chief taster and brewer of Old Rip Van Winkle. His bourbons retail for hundreds of dollars. Thousands on the secondary market.

Most people see business as a straight line. It’s not. Not for a multi-generational family business and not for yours. There are dark days in the middle, shoveling shit and fixing pipes. But it is only through perseverance that you get to toast the struggles.

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