SAVE LIVES
On the blue, I wrote:
BURN OUT
Gloria collectedeveryone’s ideas and stuck them up on the whiteboard. And one by painstakingly one, we went through them. I put my chin in my hand and let the team duke it out. Quite frankly, I was surprised by their enthusiastic responses.
I raised my eyebrows when Jon, someone who prided himself on being monochromatic, jumped up to exclaim that he knew how to solve one of the problems.
Vick glanced at me when Bob high fived him and said he knew Jon was the man to do it after his dance-off on Saturday.
“Great.” I clapped my hands when Vick took the last Post-it and stuck it over to the resolved side of her whiteboard. She folded her crimson nails over her hands and waited for me to continue. “It seems we have a lot of great ideas on how to make the Levvetor acquisition work. So, are we all in agreement that we should invest a significant amount of our quarterly budget in this company, even knowing that the FDA may rule against it?” I pushed a finger into my temple, trying to hold in the frustration. “The CEO of their biggest competitor is on that board of advisors.”
The balloon of enthusiasm that was surely the same red as Vick’s outfit deflated.
Gloria stepped forward to take me on. She would too. She’d told me she would come in guns blazing, but Vick held up a hand.
“Do you think we can’t handle it?” Vick asked.
“I’ve never taken on a venture we were incapable of handling, Ms. Blakely.”
“And yet you’re hesitating on this one. I realize that the FDA is a very large government entity. But Stonewood Enterprises doesn’t have a limit, right?”
“While limits are made to be broken, they also serve as a reminder to evaluate the options. I’m not questioning my team’s capabilities because I want to. I’m questioning them because I have to.”
“If you’re risk averse on this, then tell the Armanellis we can’t handle it. Someone else will, and they’ll do it carelessly. Our team is methodical, dependable, and innovative enough to manage it. Without us, lives will be lost and this company will most likely not stay afloat. That’ll be on you.”
And wasn’t it always on me?
My team would go to the very brink to save a company. Our mission was to turn them into profitable enterprises. I had the greatest minds on my team, working in tandem to make the machine more than well-oiled.
Yet, at the end of each meeting, each phone conference, each day,Imade the call. When to say yes and when to say no. My father had handed over the gavel because he’d had enough of the stress of playing God, of choosing whether to back massive industries or let their flame die out. That choice sometimes meant thousands of workers would lose their jobs, meant they might not be able to feed their families.
The ripple effect was astronomical every single time.
The weight, the guilt, the pressure often proved to be too much. Most people weren’t cutthroat enough to handle it.
I was. I had to be.
My team had to be also.
It didn’t mean they should shoulder the burden every time though.
“Victory, you proved a very good point this weekend when we all let off a little steam. We do better with a workload we don’t have to push ourselves to handle.” I held up my blue Post-it. “If we’re overworked, we burn out. We need time to unwind so we can come back refreshed like we did after the party. Right, everyone?”
Most of the team nodded and quietly agreed.
“My father built this tower and company only by putting together the hardest working teams he could find. We all know that my father lost his wife for a very long time because he sacrificed putting her first. The company was his love, and he mulled over every single decision he made like it was his child. Every time you go in hard, you risk everything else coming second. But”—I held up the pink Post-it and looked at Vick—“we’ll save lives.”
I moved the backing of Levvetor to a vote, and Victory Blakely beamed like she’d won an Oscar.
I lost the competition. She’d be able to dress like a damn rainbow for as long as she wanted. And Bastian got to come to our meeting right after this one and smile smugly at me when I told him we would do it.
None of it mattered though.
I was a Stonewood. The city needed me just like it had needed my father. I’d seen others put things first before their career and the career suffered. Stonewood Enterprises wouldn’t suffer. We wouldn’t falter. I knew because I’d found my weakness in plain sight.
She wore red and her smile shined brighter than the damn sun.