‘…which is why we must be the first ones to do it! Look at the iPhone!’
Tony was angry. Okay, maybe he was just his usual passionate self, but he’d really turned it to eleven on this occasion.
‘This bury-your-head-in-the-sand garbage is why we’re racing towards oblivion!’
Dan knew that Tony would never perform well if there was no competitor to beat. ‘I can feel your fire, Tony. What if it was a race to be best and not a race to be first?’
Tony fired back, ‘What does that mean!?’
‘What does it mean?’, bounced Dan.
‘Yeah. We’re clear about why we’re doing it, we’re clear about what we want to do, we’ve got a good level of early interest, we’ve got the budget. The only thing that could go wrong is….’, and Tony paused.
Dan would be the first to admit that he and Tony had their differences. Some weeks their coffee catch-up felt aimless, sometimes they struggled to find common ground and sometimes there wasn’t even coffee as it was online, or just a phone call.
This week was one of the good ones. Tony was about to launch himself and his team into the new venture. Dan was picturing Tony as a human cannonball, crash helmet in hand, about to slide into the giant barrel.
‘…the only thing that can go wrong is that we don’t find the right people.’
The penny had dropped for Tony, and Dan felt he was right. Dan was about to say that they couldn’t go ahead without the team in place, but then thought that a question would be more helpful.
Tony answered Dan’s question before it was asked, ‘Three months from today Dan – lock that in your diary. We’ll have the team together…and it will be Spring then as well.’
‘I’ll lock it in the diary’, responded Dan without hesitation. ‘Game on Tony, this has been a really fruitful conversation.’
‘Yes, it has been’, agreed Tony.
‘So, what’s happening with your court case?’ Another positive sign of a fruitful conversation was when Tony asked about Dan’s personal life.
‘Ugh.’ Dan sagged in his seat. ‘I really need to make that phone call.’
‘Yeah’, agreed Tony. ‘You really need to make that phone call. How much did they put in?’
‘Twenty-four grand.’
‘Nasty.’ After a brief pause Tony continued, ‘...and you told them not to do it.’
Dan conceded, ‘Yeah, it’s in an email.’
‘And George talked them into it.’
‘Something like that’, said Dan from behind a grim smile.
‘You’re a man of integrity’, continued Tony, ‘Don’t forget it alright?’
‘You’re very kind; we’ll see what the court thinks about me.’
Tony changed tack one more time, ‘Remember that silly football game we used to play in the office?’
‘Yeah’, smiled Dan, ‘I was only thinking about that the other day.’
Tony continued, ‘It took me a while to figure out that you didn’t care about winning. As long as you were competitive, you were content to mess around with novel solutions. You’re pretty astute when it comes to working with people. If you’re going to lead this thing, I think we’re ready to smack it out of the park.’
‘As long as the court case doesn’t smack me out of the park!’, returned Dan. ‘Certainly puts a new spin on ‘We sell freedom’ if you’re in jail.’
They both chuckled awkwardly, and Dan stood to leave.
‘I have a phone call to make.’
Tony nodded his goodbye.
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