Entering into business with family members can be high risk. Your family members become your colleagues, and vice versa.
When all is good, that can be an awesome situation. But when crises arise, both the personal and professional aspects of life are impacted quite directly.
One Redditor—known as PersimmonParty4728 on the site—recently learned that lesson. He recounted a recent experience in a post to the “Am I the A**hole (AITA)” subReddit.
The Original Poster (OP)’s title for the post covered exactly what led to the conflict.
“AITA for thinking that eggs are vegan when they’re actually not and potentially ruining our business?”
OP began at the beginning, back when the new venture was just an idea.
“Me and my brother have always worked together but last year we stopped being landscape gardeners and pivoted to being personal trainers/influencers.”
“My brother has been a vegan for over 15 years and he thought it would be a profitable market to tap into. He has taken the lead and I’ve just been happy to tag along and provide the banter and good looks, lol.”
But a personnel issue struck.
“The other week he became unwell so he instructed me to take over the socials- show some meal prep, do some motivational talks, show some exercises, etc.”
“This was going great and the reaction was pretty good and the metrics were up as I understand them.”
The good press, however, was fickle.
“However, when doing one of the meal prep videos I added two eggs to my smoothie as I’ve always done and this sparked quite a bit of backlash.”
“I honestly thought that because eggs aren’t alive that they were vegan.
“I’ve since learnt this isn’t true and tried to apologise but a lot of people feel very upset and that it totally invalidates all our hype around vegan gains.”
The swelling drama created some new friction at a recent meeting.
“My brother has gone absolutely mad and said I’ve ruined this just like I always do(?!) and has since locked me out of all the accounts and changed the names of everything to remove ‘brothers’ and indicate it’s just his business now.”
“He isn’t answering my calls or messages asking what I’m supposed to do for money now.”
“AITA for making an honest mistake and compromising mine and my brother’s business?”
Anonymous strangers weighed in by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
- NAH – No A**holes Here
Redditors had very little patience for OP’s side of the story.
He was dubbed the a**hole repeatedly.
For many, opening a business raises what is to be expected.
“YTA. If the business is about vegan sh*t, you should obviously know what is and isn’t vegan.”
“Anything that comes from an animal = not vegan. Not quite sure how you didn’t know that.” — rougeadmiralannie
“[What the hell] were you trying to peddle a business you clearly are not knowledgeable about? Go back to landscaping, one hopes you know something about it.”
“And YTA for failing to research basic information about your market.” — Cat_in_an_oak_tree
“So you co own a vegan company but don’t know what a vegan is? I can see why your brother would be annoyed, you’ve tried to tap into a market you know zilch about and let your brother do all the hard work.”
“If it’s your own livelihood then fine, but it’s not. YTA” — Flaventia
Others took direct aim at OP’s logic.
“Bruh…milk isn’t ‘alive’ either and that definitely isn’t vegan.”
“Come on now. If it comes from an animal, it isn’t vegan.” — Silent_Tome
“YTA. Technically a dead pig isn’t alive, either, still doesn’t make bacon vegan.”
“Here’s the thing, if you seriously believed that adding eggs to something kept it vegan, then it means that no vegan can trust anything you say, since you blatantly don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“It’s just that simple.” — moonlettuce13
“Do you think milk is alive? Cheese?”
“If you are confusing vegans for vegetarians, do you think meat is alive???”
“I’m so confused. Plants, which vegans do eat, are alive if you eat them raw… I’m just so confused by this.”
“Look people have shocking gaps in their knowledge, N T A for being stupid but YTA for how you’ve reacted like this wasn’t a huge deal for you brother and his business.”
“Also for apparently not listening to a word he’s said for 15 years” — Background_Angle4277
“LOL, YTA. Anytime a problem can be solved by a 2-minute google search, but wasn’t and thus led to catastrophic consequences, YTA and it isn’t even close.” — xplantxcathx
A few people advocated for OP’s brother.
They understood circumstances demanded the strict response.
“YTA – if you’re going to start a business based on being vegan, you should have done 5 minutes of research on what that means. You’ve added nothing to the business besides your ‘banter and good looks.’”
“He asks you to do some actual work for the business you supposedly run together and in a day you nearly tank the entire venture.”
“He has every right to lock you out and cut you off. You proved to be a liability as a business partner.” — RichardZangrillo
“YTA there is nothing honest about your mistake. You decided to go into a wellness business and never did any due diligence, you were not mistaken, you were NEGLIGENT.”
“You are the personification of everything that is wrong with the ‘influencers’ business, just a bunch of people that believe their looks and flashy post are enough to create a market. I hope your brother’s business survives the flop.” — Mission-Cloud360
“YTA. Your brother is actually doing the hard work and you are profiting and the one time he asks you for help you RUIN IT.”
“I’m sorry, what kind of person say ‘but eggs aren’t alive so they are vegan’ when you literally could Google or ask your brother who has been vegan for 15 years?”
“‘He isn’t answering my calls or messages asking what I’m supposed to do for money now.’ Idk, why don’t you use your banter and good looks to make a business you actually know something about?”
“Seriously, you were obviously using your brother’s knowledge and abilities to have money and now you need his help to find a business to tap into? Be independent, think by yourself.” — Quicksilver1964