CHAPTER 2
Moonlight Reflections and Midcourse Corrections

That Darned Eduardo

Jay had hoped that just once Eduardo’s grapevine would be wrong. Tonight, that was not the case. There stood Cathy Simmons with his golden statue. He had forewarned Laura of this possibility, and she was clearly crushed. He had to use all his powers of persuasion to even get her to go to the dinner. They ended up stuck at a table with no one they knew, and then the awful award ceremony. When President Blankenship made the announcement, over half the room looked immediately at Jay instead of Cathy.

One thing was definitely true about Jay: he was always the consummate professional. He smiled and appropriately applauded, even managing to drag himself to the front of the room after all the photos were taken and extend his hand to Cathy in congratulations. After the dinner, Bob Blankenship went out of his way to find Jay and personally compliment him on his year. “Jay, we are very pleased and proud to have you as a top performer on our team. You had a great year, and the events tonight don’t change that. It was a very difficult decision for the executive committee, and be assured that you received a great deal of consideration and support.” Jay thought, “Yeah, but not your support, and in the end that is the only factor that mattered.”

Bob went on, “As you will hear when I kick off the negotiation workshop in the morning, we are shifting our strategy and focus to put a much greater emphasis on client profitability. I fully expect you to embrace the simple process you will be hearing about, and I would not be the least bit surprised to be handing that golden statue to you next year.” Jay had always appreciated the way Bob could even put a happy face on an earthquake. And yes, his earth had been shaken in just a few short hours. This time, Bob’s spin magic had not lasted longer than it took for him to glad-hand the next group of what Jay saw as “losers.”

In Jay’s world, there was no second place. He thought of the movie Glengarry Glen Ross. In that film about salespeople, first prize in a sales contest was a Cadillac, and second prize was a set of steak knives. He was left to wonder, “Where are my steak knives?” At that point, he realized he was better off not having ready access to any sharp objects.