For too long, Harvy Simkovits followed in the path of his crafty and conniving patriarch. Harvy’s WWII surviving, Soviet communism escaping, Canada immigrating, Montreal business building, government tax skirting, and blatant womanizing father told him, “Harvy, I want you to finish engineering school, business school, and then law school.” The family’s flamboyant forbearer longed for his second son to become a somebody. He then wanted Harvy to come into the family business where he’d brashly say, “Just lassen to me, son, for I have more experience than you!”

Harvy, a loyal and impressionable youth, heeded his predecessor’s wily wisdom for a while. After completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in engineering at MIT and a stint at Harvard Business School, Harvy realized that he was following his father’s designs and not creating his own dreams.

Harvy dropped out of Harvard and discovered his passion in the fledgling field of organization development. After completing another master’s degree in that discipline, Harvy enjoyed a twenty-five-year career in management consulting and executive coaching. He helped many owner-managed companies and family businesses not to make the same mistakes that his father and family made in their over thirty-year business.

Then, in 2005, years after the death of his dad, Harvy felt he had to make peace with his past. He started to write not only about how his charming, hard-driving, and finagling father built his success in Canada, but also about how those qualities had had an insidious impact on their family, the family business, and (of course) Harvy. Harvy had to reconcile, repudiate, and rectify the moral and ethical dilemmas he faced with his furtive father and the rest of his thorny family so that he could successfully survive his survivor patriarch.

Harvy Simkovits has been writing and publishing stories about his Canadian immigrant family and their family’s business since 2005. Just Lassen to Me! is Harvy’s full-length memoir turned book series. He resides in Lexington, MA with his wife, two kids, and two cats.