ABSTRACT
Tomas Hernandez was a 65-year-old Hispanic man who worked the majority of his professional life as an artisan cabinetmaker. He began making cabinets with his father while in grade school and later went on to study carpentry at a local technical college, being the first member of his family to pursue education beyond high school. While working for a home builder and developer, Mr. Hernandez built cabinets in his home garage in the evenings and weekends; he took great pride in his ability to create beauty with his hands. His extraordinary ability, hard work ethic, and tenacity to care for his wife and children developed into a thriving small business. Over the years Mr. Hernandez had carefully taught his son in the art of building and the critical elements of business. George had been apprenticing for 15 years in preparation to take over the family business. By the end of his career, Mr. Hernandez felt he knew “everything one needs to know” about making cabinets and surviving as a smallbusiness owner. Mr. Hernandez and his wife, Elsa, who was a stayat-home mother, earnestly saved and prepared for their retirement, a time when they would be able to enjoy more leisure time, with contentment of providing for the financial security of their only son, the youngest child in a family of seven. However, as Mr. Hernandez’s retirement date approached and he planned to turn over the business to his son, he realized that he enjoyed his activities so much that he “had not worked a day in his life.” He began to fear losing the social interaction with customers and other small-business owners and the feeling of being an active and essential member of the community. He was also concerned that boredom and laziness would
set in without the structure and physical challenge of his work. But, most important, he wondered what would happen to the special feeling he felt when he created something beautiful for someone else to use.
