It's Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business by Mann John David & Burg Bob

It's Not About You: A Little Story About What Matters Most in Business by Mann John David & Burg Bob

Author:Mann, John David & Burg, Bob [Mann, John David]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Portfolio
Published: 2011-09-19T16:00:00+00:00


8

BEING MUDDY

“No Aunt Elle?” When Sal ushered him to the familiar corner table, Ben had found Claire sitting alone with a basket of breadsticks.

“She asked me to convey her regrets. She couldn’t make it today.”

Ben felt a stab of disappointment. He’d been looking forward to more conversation with Aunt Elle.

On the other hand, now he could talk more freely with Claire about his situation. And that was the whole point, he reminded himself. Intel. The inside scoop. Right? This was a golden opportunity.

“So,” said Claire as Ben settled into his seat and picked out a meal from the menu, “how’s Mel doing?”

The three of them had first met and become friends in business school. Twelve years ago, when Ben and Melanie went through a rough patch together, it was Claire who had helped pull them through. That was all in the past now, and their life was good . . . except that Mel had lost her job six months ago, and all her efforts at finding a new one had so far proven fruitless.

Which meant it was all the more critical that Ben bring this merger to a successful conclusion.

“She’s good,” replied Ben. “Great, actually. She loves being an at-home mom for a change. And Robbie sure isn’t complaining any.”

He went on to brag about Robbie for a few minutes—at age eleven, he was already an accomplished martial artist, had just passed his black-belt test (“with honors,” Ben added), and was doing great in his schoolwork, too.

“But hey,” Ben said, “before we get into anything else, you promised me you’d tell me about Pindar. And Aunt Elle—who exactly is she, anyway? And what kind of work did she do?”

Marco, the young waiter, came by to take their lunch order, and after he left, Claire addressed Ben’s questions.

“That mutual friend I mentioned? It’s Rachel, my boss.

“Before starting her own business, she used to work for Pindar and his wife at their mansion. That’s how she met Aunt Elle. There was a whole circle of prominent businesspeople who used to pass through Pindar’s home, and Aunt Elle was one of them. I think Pindar had consulted for her company or something.

“Anyway, Rachel and Aunt Elle became thick as thieves. Today Aunt Elle is one of the biggest individual donors to Rachel’s foundation.”

Ben’s mind was reeling. So Aunt Elle wasn’t just wealthy, she was . . . stratospherically wealthy.

“What did Aunt Elle do? I mean, what was her business?”

Claire smiled. “She’s a pretty private person, believe it or not. I’d have to let her tell you that. I’m sure she will sometime. She did tell me a story once, though, about how Pindar got started.

“As a young man, Pindar sold business machines. This was in the days before personal computers.

“He’d held a number of odd jobs, none of them especially successful, but at one point he made a conscious decision to excel. Now, as a freshman rep for this small firm, he paid a visit to a promising new company that was about to go through the roof—although of course nobody knew this yet.



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.