Page 18 of Billionaire Corruption
She gave an embarrassed laugh. “I didn’t tell her I was going out. Go back to sleep, I’ll get a cab.”
But I was already awake. I checked my watch, it was two o’clock in the morning.
“I’ll drive you,” I said.
She tried to protest but I wouldn’t hear of it.
“Gives me a chance to drive my car,” I said with a wink, finding some sweatpants to pull on.
We took the elevator down to the basement.
“So, you live with your grandparents?” I said, to make conversation.
“Just my gran, and my brother, Toby. My father works offshore on an oil rig, but he lives there too when he comes home.”
“Sounds cramped.”
She shrugged. “I’m used to it.”
When I was her age, I was already living by myself in a condo in the city. My first place had a great view over the ocean, I remember. It was a bit of a drive to work but I loved that view. The apartment I was living in now was much more luxurious and bigger, of course, but I found myself often thinking back of that first place of mine, remembering how happy I’d been there.
We drove in a silence for a while.
Then she asked, “Your first job out of college, was in tech, right?”
She must have googled me.
“That’s right, a friend and I worked on a silly dating app.”
I told her how my father wanted to find work for me, but I wanted to start out on my own. We worked on it for a few months, Cameron being the brains behind the app while I found us investors and advertisers. We sold it, made a bit of money and I moved on to my first job in corporate, also in sales, but more senior. My big break was a deal with major corporations, installing our software at firms across the country. It led to a big merger and buy-out from another company.
“That was impressive,” Grace commented.
“It did involve some fancy footwork,” I admitted. I didn’t tell her that it took a lot less impressive dealing as well. I negotiated myself into the top job at the firm, working my boss out of the picture completely. But at that point, I felt Isaac had lost touch with what the market needed. He was always going on about the integrity of the product and I felt his vision was limiting and old-fashioned. It was easy to push him aside. The merger was a steppingstone for me, and suddenly I was being headhunted by firms across the country. It was a good time in my life, I remember being flown to Texas and Washington, put up in hotels while men in expensive suits tried to convince me to join their companies.
“How did you end up at Ladden?” she asked.
I recalled getting a call from Brock Brenneman, after some business lunch where we shook hands, exchanged a few pleasantries. He asked me to lunch at his club. It was one of those exclusive, men’s only establishments in the city. From the outside, it didn’t look that imposing but inside, was another story. High ceilings, polished balustrades and marble floors gleamed upon entrance. The waiters were all male, discreet and murmured in the ears of patrons. There was no loud music, and raised voices were not permitted.
Brock said he’d been following my career with interest and that he thought I was the man to take Ladden into the twenty first century. He wanted a dealmaker, someone who could make things happen. He was impatient with the progress of the current leadership at the company. By the time lunch was over, I knew I’d be joining Ladden Ltd, I just didn’t know when or how.
After a moment, Grace asked me, “So…. How much of your success depended on people you know?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m just wondering…,” she said. “If you take the people you knew in college, and through your family, out of the picture… how many of these job opportunities would have come your way?”
I looked at her, not wanting to state the obvious.
She looked out the window. “My father has always battled to get work. He finished high school, but he needed to earn money. His father had been shot dead in a supermarket robbery when he was thirteen. My grandmother had to raise him and his brothers, so times were tough. There was no money for college. He enlisted in the army and after that, the best he could get was security work. Do you know what that pays?”
She told me of the job applications that he sent off, the many mails that were not answered, not even replied to. Needless to say, there were no invitations to gentleman’s clubs either.
I didn’t enjoy being reminded of my privileged and sheltered upbringing. I didn’t say anything, but I could feel irritation building. I was not going to apologize for being able to spot opportunities and make the most of them. I had worked for my success and had never asked anyone for help, either.
“You can turn off here,” she suddenly said. “It’s a short cut.”
We drove the rest of the way in silence.
