Juliet's School of Possibilities by Laura Vanderkam

Author:Laura Vanderkam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

They turned back toward the churning clouds. Riley took Juliet’s outstretched hand. She felt that now-familiar crackle. Another flash of lightning split the sky. An image slowly pulled itself together out of the pieces. Skip. Her long blond hair was short now. It was a middle-aged woman’s cut, and she wore a no-nonsense business suit instead of the jeans and sweaters Skip usually sported, but it was definitely Skip. She was earnest as always. She stood behind a podium on a stage with huge banners behind her. Riley could not make out what they said, but the atmosphere was festive. People laughed, clapped. Skip herself was beaming.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am thrilled to be here tonight. Oh yes, I know I always say that. And I always love to celebrate the work we do, but tonight is special. I’m particularly thrilled to spend time with my great friend Riley . . .”

The scene swirled over to future Riley, sitting in a chair toward the front of a huge ballroom. She looked relaxed. Happy. In every way she looked healthier than the woman in the kitchen in that first possibility.

“You all know Riley as the inspirational CEO of MB & Company . . .”

“The what?” Riley in real life was flabbergasted.

“Shush . . .” Juliet said. “Just hear her out.”

“Consultants don’t like to talk about the work they do for their clients, but we can talk about a few things. Right, Riley? Can I do that?” Skip in the vision smiled at her friend. “Riley announced when she took over five years ago that she would put real capacity into a few subversive little ventures. She said, look, we already hire the smartest people in the world. Why can’t we use them to change the world?” Skip paced the stage. “So she formed a small business advisory service and enrolled mostly female entrepreneurs from all over the globe in training similar to what MB consultants get. The goal was to help them grow their businesses to more than $1 million in revenue. A full three-quarters of the first cohort hit that mark.”

The room burst into applause. “But of course, you shouldn’t think this is altruism at all. She wants these small businesses to become big enough to be MB clients. Right, Riley?”

There in the front row, Riley laughed. “Some already are!” Riley heard her own voice. It was positively merry.

“Then there’s the international education work. She formed a squad of consultants to go into the dozen countries with the lowest rates of school enrollment for girls, and they worked to implement as many best practices as possible. In five years, the attendance rate has risen 5 percent in those dozen countries. This is literally thousands of young women’s lives. That sounds more altruistic to me, but maybe not. If I know Riley, she’s probably scheming to have some of those women wind up as MB clients or consultants too.” The audience laughed.

“And of course there’s the work she’s done for us.

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