Interestingly enough, one wonders what would have happened had Adams not attempted a career in business. He easily would have excelled in either the ministry or in the field of law. He was a born philosopher. He loved dissecting political issues and religious questions. A voracious reader and lively conversationalist, Adams could debate virtually anyone on any issue under the sun. He had a passion for politics, but paid little attention to the practical affairs in life. He frequently wore the same suit of clothes, and almost always appeared disheveled and unkempt. Unfortunately, he also paid little attention to his professional life.
Deacon Adams found a position for his son in a local countinghouse, an 18th century combination of a bank and accounting firm. But, within months, young Adams’s employer approached Deacon Adams and informed him that his son had no talents as a merchant.
The elder Adams decided to help his son start a business. With a loan of 1,000 pounds, Adams launched his own venture, taking in a business partner, and bestowing half of the company’s equity on the partner. Soon, the enterprise collapsed, and Deacon Adams was forced to retire his son’s debts, and totally forgive the original loan as well.
Two professional failures behind him, the younger Adams took up the family business, assuming responsibility for the brewer-distillery operation in his father’s substantial mercantile empire. The “malt business” was quietly turning a regular profit, and took little of Deacon Adams’s attention. Once again, Samuel Adams demonstrated that he had little passion for making money. While his father had hoped that he would energetically seek out ways to expand the business, Sam Adams was content to function as a caretaker, doing only what needed to be done to keep the operation afloat. It wasn’t that Samuel Adams was lazy. He put his time in as diligently as the next guy did. It was simply that he showed no zeal or creativity in his work. In the words of biographer Paul Lewis, Adams was content “to do what he was told, and to take no initiatives of his own.” In time, the Adams family business would suffer irreparable harm due to the son’s lack of energy and creative zeal. But, for now, while the elder Adams was undoubtedly disappointed in his son’s business acumen, he welcomed him as a political ally.
