Chapter 18
Humble Beginnings
“Give ‘em quality, cheap and reliable......”-Henry Ford
Tom’s talks with John had brought him back to where he’d been before he‘d joined the German firm - frustrated with corporate business. From the outside, international business had seemed so much more exotic, stable, and established than American corporate work. It was more long-term oriented, not tied into quarterly dividends; and therefore, he had hoped, not so capricious in decision making. He expected them to be more responsible with their labor force; the people that depended upon them, and gave them their dedication and trust. But Tom found it to be closer to indentured servitude than family. He found that international business wasn’t any more responsible than domestic corporations, just more entrenched and cynical. Tom enjoyed the people he worked with, and held no bitterness or anger towards them; they were merely stuck in a place where he didn’t want to stay. Also, the message was clear once they replaced John with a former employee from Siemens; rather than promoting Tom to the position that he had earned, and had performed for years. Tom knew he wasn’t out of control, he just wasn’t controllable; and that was too scary for the VP of finance. Tom came to realize that his employer wanted to own and control him, lock, stock, and barrel. He wasn’t into being owned by anyone. But he was grateful for one important thing his boss had taught him; a healthy disrespect for professional ‘experts.’ He showed Tom how corruptible the public accountants were, how high level bankers enjoyed entertaining you with lavish meals when your deposits passed the ten million mark, yet ran at the first hint of controversy. Professional services firms were the ultimate example of fair weather ‘friendship.’ Tom saw, first hand, how fee hungry attorneys would do anything for a buck. He learned that a good system that was put into place by one group of people, was easily turned to another less savory purpose by others...... while still maintaining the prior clean public image. Policies of the World Bank and A.I.D. were dependant upon who was in political office at the time. International law courts, thank God, were a joke; and Tom worried about the implications if they ever formed into an effective body. Most importantly, Tom learned that the system of global checks and balances was being eliminated in favor of rule by multinational corporations. Individual countries were losing their sovereignty, cultural identities, customs, and their ability to forestall uncontrolled economic activity....whose real purpose was conquest and dominance. The value systems of corporations, and their logical approaches towards governance, had looked good to him; but their very real actions were as sinister and anti-life as the fringe people portrayed them. Tom then began to wonder how the fringe people had become ‘the fringe.’ He then realized that the media was being directed to focus on extremists to discredit the sincere. They were too accurate for comfort, and were therefore rendered ineffective through discrediting stories. The realizations were more than Tom could emotionally handle, and he wanted out. Once again, he was faced with an unavoidable question.
“Is this a club that I want to belong to?” he asked himself.
The answer was a quick and resounding “no.” So he began to plan, again, for his next career. It was a career he’d kept in the back of his mind all along - owning and running his own business. There, he would be his own boss, rewrite the rules to suit his values, control the environment and the output, and thereby find freedom and fulfillment.
After investigating many different opportunities, Tom decided to work with someone who had already been partially successful to reduce the risk to a manageable level. The thought of proven franchises was attractive, but overly expensive; and he’d be dependant upon the franchiser. The only franchise partnership that looked workable hadn‘t panned out. They made fast food chicken sandwiches, and were on the brink of going national. Tom wanted a freestanding franchise in
“I wouldn’t have last long with those folks, either,” he concluded. “It’s a nicer group of people, but not much less of a tyrannical rule than unprincipled businesses. Neither can accept deviations from their ‘ideal,’ even thought their ‘ideal’ is at two different ends of the spectrum.”
Tom was opposed to cloning, and decided that he didn’t want to join anyone's club. He’d make his own. Working with friends from
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“Are you about done there, Mr. Playset guy?” the elderly guard asked Tom kindly.
“Yeah, I have a little more paperwork, and I’ll be out of here. It’s been a great weekend.
Is the foot traffic in the Mall this busy all the time?”
“Yep, its gone nuts. They say we git a quarter of a million people a weekend! Then, we also git all the Marta problems.”
“Marta problems?”
“Yeah, for 50 cents a day any inner-city punk can ride the system and pick on people. Our shoplifting losses have gone through the roof; and purse snatchings have become so bad, that women won’t hardly carry them any more. The little old blue-haired ladies that used to come shopping have stopped coming out of fear.”
“I know what you mean. I’m a reasonably fit man, and I felt threatened by the gang types. People warned me, but I didn’t believe it. I thought that they were being racist. But it isn’t just poor blacks, its Hispanic and white gangs. I didn’t make cash sales this weekend, I just took orders with credit cards.”
“That was smart.”
“But it’s sad that things are going this way in
“Its uncontrolled growth, it is. Pure and simple greed. And mind my words, its going to catch up with us soon. I’m glad I’m retiring. Had enough, want nothing of it!”
“Retiring, when?”
“Next month, and not a minute too soon for me!”
“Well you can go home now, I’m done; and I think most everyone has left since we were talking.”
“Yeah, I just liked talking to you. I’ve been watching, they are mostly gone. Time to send the stragglers out. You take that door there, o.k.? I’ve just got a couple more hours of checking doors, and I’m gone.”
“Fine, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Good talking to you! Oh, by the way, your play sets are great! You’re going to get wealthy yourself selling those. I haven’t seen anything better, and these people here will pay for quality, just you see!”
“You’re right, I sold nearly $30,000 in four days. You’re the only person I’ve dared to tell. I think I know what I’m going to be doing for now on; playgrounds in
“Good luck to you. But I won’t be seeing you tomorrow, it’s my day off.”
“Goodbye then. Thanks for your help, and the great conversations these past few days.”
“No problem. Be good.”
Tom packed up his small items, and placed them into two boxes. One big box, that contained costly but valueless flyers, stayed. The other smaller box, full of sales papers and credit card orders, went with him to his car. That night he excitedly told his wife all about his day, and their new ‘career.’ She smiled, and was content to see Tom’s fortunes rise; for she had tied her rope to his rising star. Tom misunderstood her smile as pride in his hard work. He felt good as he slept that night. He had established a firm and financially stable direction for himself.
“I’ll make the business into what I want it to be, and it’ll be good for us, my employees, the customers, and the kids. I can do this! Make money, not concessions - and be with my kids more,” was his last thought, as he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
“Thomas?” his boss called him into his office, the next day at work - right after lunch.
“Yes?” Tom answered nervously, as he walked into his office.
“Didn’t you do some kind of trade show at Lenox Mall this last weekend?”
“Yeah,” he answered cautiously, not providing further details.
“At lunch I heard that they had some trouble late last night. An old security guard who was just about to retire was mugged and killed by some crack heads. Everybody says that he was a great guy, and that they only got five or ten bucks off of him. Can you imagine? Sounds kooky to me. What was the mall like to you?”
“I knew the guy......” Tom answered vacantly. “Their story is right. He was a great guy....” Tom finished sadly. “I need to get back to my desk now, o.k.?”
“Sure, sure. I was just wonderin.”
“I do too, Arthur. I do too.”
Tom returned to his desk, and reviewed his time with the old security guard. While short, it had been significant. It was tough to accept that he’d been killed that way; but something in the man’s voice had hinted that he knew his time was near at hand. Even still, he had remained a good and calm man. Tom remembered then, their family doctor back in
“Where’s the justice?” Tom wondered.
He decided that the two men’s lives had been far from being a waste; even though their very goodness left them open to destruction.
“I just have to find a way to do and be good; while protecting myself, and my family, from destructive people,” he concluded.
As the next couple of years passed, Tom’s co-workers’ jokes about his side business grew. Until one day, when they totally dissipated. He came in that day, and told his bosses that he could no longer perform both jobs at the same time. Both had become fulltime jobs, and it was weighing on him. He had followed other people’s good advice, and run both jobs parallel through the first two turbulent years of a new business. So disappointments in the business during those tough times only remained disappointments; not the crushing defeat they would’ve meant, if it had been his only source of income. By the time he was ready to quit his corporate job, he already had a lucrative ‘job’ at his new business. His store had run through two business cycles, and was staffed by two wonderful women employees. One was a retiree, and the other was a young and vibrant woman. A month before quitting his job, Tom hired on his other key team member - a talented young man who loved working with wood, and was eager to have a way to express his creative talents. Life was good, business was great, and the money flowed.
©Tibet
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©Tibet, Lamplight Unto a Darkened World…the American Delusion, a Parody of life ( L'illusion Américaine, une Parodie de Vie); is copyright protected, by author, Patrick Mahoney. Online Internet Reproduction/Propagation/Quotation Encouraged, with this citation. Any Printed reproduction, other than for personal reading, requires written permission by author, patrickm at http://patrickm.gather.com/ or patrick1000000000@yahoo.com
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