Rich Man Leaves Older Son $2.8 Million, Younger Son Gets Only $1 — Story of the Day

A rich father puts his two sons to the test before deciding on their inheritance, then leaves his older son $2.8 million and his spendthrift younger son gets $1.

Being a parent is the hardest job in the world, and you never really know how you’ve done until your children grow up. Clark Hanson was a successful businessman, but he felt that as a parent, he’d failed miserably.

His oldest son Court was a quiet, sober, hard-working man, but his youngest, Gerald, was a spendthrift, thoughtless, and selfish. Clark often asked himself where he’d gone wrong with Gerald, and what he could do at this late date to make it right.

As his first step in his campaign to make Gerald hardworking and responsible, Clark got his 26-year-old son his first job in his company’s mailroom. Gerald looked around at the mailroom then stared at his father in astonishment.

“You want me to do WHAT?” he asked.

“You will be separating the mail and delivering it to the people it’s been sent to,” Clark said. “And you’ll be starting at 9:00 on the dot.”

Gerald looked confused. “At 9:00? But that’s impossible! My personal trainer comes in at 10:00 then I have tennis after lunch…” he commented. “That just won’t work for me, dad!”

“Yes it will,” Clark said firmly. “Because you see, I’m the one paying for the personal trainer and the lunches and the tennis pro, and I won’t be paying any longer. You’ll have a lot of free time from now on.”

Gerald was furious, but Clark wouldn’t yield an inch. After a week in the mailroom, Gerald burst into his father’s office, pushing past his secretary and not even knocking on the door.

“I’ve had enough!” he cried, waving his weekly paycheck. “This whole week I worked like a slave and this is what I’ve earned?”

Clark calmly took his paycheck and looked at it. “That looks about right!” he said.

“Why can’t I have a job like Court’s?” Gerald demanded. “He earns a...