[At a Conference Centre in Birmingham (UK)]

“Ready for your big day?” asked Garth Samson.
He was waiting to be called onto the stage to deliver the keynote speech of the conference.
Their friend, Sally Jameson had organised the event for the Foundation that Garth had set up almost a year earlier. This was their first big event since the launch of the enterprise.

“Ready for my death by social media more like,” replied Maxine.

“It can’t be that bad? Can it?”

“It would be just my luck for my sister, Dawn to appear and be the party pooper.”

“It does seem that you have an issue with her?” asked Garth.

“Not me with her but her with me. I went to the interview with Sally in her place. If I hadn’t and if Sally hadn’t seen something in me, I would not be here today. She thinks I owe her big time.”

“Is there a chance that she could be here?”

Maxine shrugged her shoulders.
“Who knows. Since Sally and my mother got together, she’s kept well away and her social media has even toned down since her original diatribes about her perverted family were posted.”

“Do you keep tabs on her posts?”

“My assistant Cliff does. She’d block me in a flash if she saw me or anyone who could even by some remote possibility be me, want to friend her.”

Garth smiled.
“I’m sure that you will knock them dead in your session. Margot was very impressed with the outline that you sent her. You have a story to tell and this is as good a place as any to do it.”

Maxine smiled.
"Thanks, Garth. Changing the subject… You do seem far more relaxed than I’ve ever seen you.”

“I feel good. Norfolk is very agreeable to me. The virtual snail’s pace of life there is good. Then there is the time difference to my operations Stateside. I can go out before dawn, and spend several hours just thinking about the birds before the USA wakes up. That is very therapeutic, you know. Both Kim and Bryony have remarked on how calm I am. Margo just smiles. I should have made an effort to look her up years ago. Thanks to you, Kim and Bryony, we are together, at last."

“But you were married, twice and from all accounts pretty happily to your last wife.”

“I was happy, and at times, life sucks. Still, Margot and I are together now, and that's what matters."

“The foundation seems to be going well?” remarked Maxine.

“You will have to ask Margot in a month or two, and then we'll see. That’s when we start getting the first formal financial and status reports from the initial tranche of projects, but you know all that already,” replied Garth, who was at last showing some nerves.

Just then, Kim waved at the pair.

"That's the signal for me to do my thing. This is going to be as nerve-wracking for me as it is for you,” said Garth.

Maxine laughed.
“Yeah. For two people who normally shun all publicity, this is right there in the lion’s den for us isn’t it.”

Garth smiled.
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more…”

“Since when have you taken to quoting Shakespeare?”

“Since Margot took me to Stratford to watch Henry the Fifth. She seems to think that I need a complete education in the finer arts. If you bothered to ask me, I'd prefer to be sitting at home beside the fire with a good book and a glass of something nice. Mind you, it was a good show, but most of the period language went right over my head.”

Maxine shook her head. It seemed that Margo was making Garth catch up for lost time on the culture front.

[two hours later, Sally Jameson was on a different stage introducing the next speaker]

“It gives me great pleasure to introduce a woman who left school with only a single GCSE and now runs a small but very successful investment company. I give you Maxine Forsythe…”

Maxine stood up and walked to the lectern that was at the centre of the stage. There was a smattering of polite applause.

She put her notes down and took a deep breath.

“Thank you for the introduction Sally,” began Maxine.

She looked around the seminar room. There was hardly a spare seat. As this was a ‘breakout session’, she was very surprised. With that surprise went an increase in nerves.

“Sally often tells a tale in her seminars about seeing the potential in a person that she was interviewing for a summer job and deciding that it was worth taking a risk.”

“She goes on to tell how that, person, was dropped in at the deep end and how that person not only swam but raced ahead and just a few months later, moved on to bigger and better things. The risk that she had taken had paid off."

Maxine looked over to the side of the stage where Sally was standing.

"That person was me. I was the out of work person who came to her looking for a job, any job. She took a risk and trusted her gut feeling that this person had the potential for bigger and better things. Thank you, Sally, and that's from the bottom of my heart."

Maxine let that sink in for a few seconds.

“Sally took a risk in employing me. We all take risks every day. In our private lives and at work. Most are small things like trying a new type of tea or coffee.”

Maxine moved away from the lectern before saying.
“I’d like to try a brief survey.”

"How many people here have tried Lapsang Schon tea. Please raise your hand?"

About half the audience did that.

“Put your hand down if you hated it.”

About 30% of those with their hand up lowered them.

“Put your hand down if you went ‘Meh’ to the tea.”

Over half of those remaining did so.

“Of those still with their hands up, keep them up only if you drink it more than once a week.”

Less than a dozen people remained with their hands raised.

“Thank you. Those of you with your hands up may put them down now.”

She paused for a second.

"Those of you who tried it and didn't like it did so because you took the risk and then made an informed decision about the tea. Rather than dismissing it out of hand because it is different, you took a risk, a small risk but, nevertheless, a risk."

"Columbus took a risk sailing west over the horizon when millions thought that the Earth was flat yet, we know now that the Earth is to all intents and purposed a slightly squashed sphere."

"As I said just now, life is a risk, but far too many of us are becoming increasingly risk-averse. Going to the same place year after year for our holiday's, to buying the same brand of washing up liquid, to what we do in business. A lot of this is down to the increasingly litigious society we live in but, we can still take risks and live to see another day."

“In my business, the first and biggest risk is deciding if the company I’m looking at is worth investing in. Once I've decided to invest, I have to decide how to work with the company to minimise my risk in the long term. Not the next 90 days. Not the next year but the next three to five years. In my very humble opinion, such market-based short-termism is killing risk and creativity in the western world.”

"By returning to what might euphemistically, be called the 'good old days and giving the market two fingers, when it comes to their 90-day show increased profits or go bust attitude, we can plan how to take our business forward and make our investors happy in the long run. If that pissed off the short-sellers then that's a welcome bonus. We are there to run the business for the benefit of everyone and not just the tranche of increasingly short-term investors.”

“Once upon a time, many institutional investors such as those who are in the Life Assurance market did take the long view. Back then, fifteen years was considered short term. Sadly, this is no longer the case. We have to ask ourselves why this is?"

She paused for effect.

“In my mind, far too many MBA, or as I call them, More Boring Assholes, have brought their get super-rich quick and get out mantra into almost every cranny of the business world. That is why my cardinal rule is to never even think about investing in a listed company and especially any with MBA’s anywhere near running the business.”

Maxine smiled at the audience.
“I did say running and not ruining but in many cases, there is not a lot of difference.”

There was a good deal of laughter from the audience.

“My second rule is never to even think about investing in a business that has the children or grandchildren of the owner chomping at the bit to take over, sell everything off and cash out. Families and stock markets are frankly immovable objects. However, that does leave a lot of SME’s that are literally crying out for the right sort of investment so, I am never short of opportunities.”

Maxine paused and looked at the audience. She could see many heads nodding.

"I see that many of you agree with me, at least in principle. Thank you for that."

“As I said, Investing in companies and people for the long term is very much not what the markets want at the moment. Having to report increased profits every 90 days or watch your share price take a hammering because of speculators, and even worse, 'shorters', is not good for your stress levels as business leaders. To me, it is fundamentally wrong. Yes, you have to report how your company is doing but, in many industries, investments take 3 to 5 years or even longer to come to fruition. To be expected to show a profit on a long-term investment after one or two quarters or at the most a year is ridiculous and verging on stupidity in my opinion. Hence my rule No 1.”

"If you were to break ground on a new factory today that produce large quantities of state of the art silicon chips, it would be 3-5 billion dollars and upwards of 3 years before that investment started to produce worthwhile quantities of product. For many on Wall St and elsewhere, that is far too much capital and far too long a time before it starts to pay back. They'd want to impose a very high rate of return just to consider lending the money. Plus, it does not even take into consideration that the plant might be operating for 10 or even 15 years.”

“Yet, other countries don’t get hung-up about short-termism and the need to satisfy the so-called analysts. In my very humble opinion, those analysts speak out of their backsides.”

“Many years ago, the Rock Band Queen, released a song called 'I want it now'. To me, that sums up the markets perfectly."

She paused for a few seconds.

"Sometimes we get our decisions about risk-taking wrong. The choice we made may initially seem to be the right one and we could even reap the benefits of that choice. However, we may not find out for years that we did get it wrong in the long term. Let me give you an example."

“Back in the late 1820s and early 1830s, the railways of the world were in their infancy. Steam engines were very underpowered. The Engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was engaged to build a railway line from Bristol to London. I say Bristol to London because it was the merchants of Bristol that initially financed the project. London was the destination for much of the merchandise that arrived at the Port of Bristol.”

“Because of the hills in the way, he had to find a route that was as flat as possible. The result was the line he built didn’t follow the much more direct route what we now know as the A4 but went north and then west once you pass Reading to pass through a gap in the hills that had been carved by the River Thames. He also reasoned that putting the rails 7ft apart would allow his chief engineer, Daniel Gooch, to put a bigger boiler on the engines. More steam could be produced, therefore giving more speed and pulling power. In 1840, his railway was running trains at 60mph when others were struggling to reach 30mph but, we have to ask ourselves, was this a success or failure?”

She let the question stew for a few seconds.
“I say short term success but ultimately a long-term failure. Eventually, the 7ft gauge the Great Western Railway had adopted had to go because every other railway in the land and most of the world had opted for a gauge 4ft 8.5 inches. The last broad-gauge train ran in 1892, by which time locomotive boilers had become much more efficient, and the size wasn't so important. But, the legacy that Brunel left was a railway line that is almost flat from London to Bristol. That is a success, but the people of the Victorian era didn't know it, but I'd like to think that Brunel did know that he was building a legacy.”

“The thing I am trying to say is that we don't know what the future holds at the time when we have to make decisions. Many times, the ultimate result is not that clear cut. The risk-averse world we live in seems to be increasingly dictating that no decision is better than the wrong decision. We can't make progress as a race that way. No decisions mean stagnation and eventual decay. If we make a decision that turns out to be the wrong one, then sometimes, we have to accept that it was the wrong one and do an about-face. It is a pity that more politicians don't admit that sometimes that they got it wrong before and, with the benefit of hindsight, they'd make a different one today. Instead, we get their failures dragged up in the press time after time simply because they won't admit they got it wrong. They used to say that no one got fired for buying IBM. Now it appears to be… ‘no one ever got fired for making no decision’.”

“That ‘do nothing’ or ‘just say no attitude’ is what many parts of the world are seeing now. The old 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it attitude' will nine times out of ten, eventually come back to bite you where it hurts. Not right away, not tomorrow, perhaps not next year but come back it will."

“I guess many of you are asking how this all fits in with the aims of the Foundation?”

“When Garth first pitched the idea of the foundation to me, I knew that it would have to take risks when selecting the right projects to invest in that will ultimately fulfil the long term aims of the foundation. There would be failures along the way, but if the work it set out to do was to make an impact for the long term, these would have to be lived with and learned from."

“Learning is a lifelong thing. We learn new things every day. To have an inquisitive mind, is to me, a huge asset. Not accepting the status quo. Questioning decisions made by Politicians and much more. That's where you all come in."

"As ambassadors to the foundation, we expect two things. Honesty and an attitude of questioning what others are saying are impossible. That involves taking risks, rocking the boat and much more. If we don't, then much of the money that the Foundation will raise and subsequently spend will be wasted which, is just not right. Pitch your ideas. Don’t be afraid to think big and think long term.”

Maxine saw a few nodding heads in the audience.

“As long as you have considered the downsides as well as the upsides, we won’t bite your head off. In fact, as a board member, I will make it my duty to work with promising ideas and develop them into ones that will have a better chance of success and benefit society as a whole. Not today, not tomorrow but next year and beyond.”

"I read a story some years ago where an employer said to a prospective employee something like, 'I don't care if you are a green-skinned lesbian pigmy. If you are right for the job then you are my sort of person.' That is the attitude we want from our ambassadors."

Maxine walked to the front of the stage before saying,

“My question to each and every one of you is… are you up for it? Are you up for the task ahead? Are you willing to take the rough with the smooth and everything else? If you are then, welcome aboard. If you aren't then, we wish you all the best for whatever you do in the future."

“Thank you for listening to me today as I rambled my way through this little talk. I hope at least some of it has made some sort of sense to you. Good luck for you all in whatever direction your future lies.”

Maxine walked to the side of the stage. As she did so, applause broke out from the audience.

---

“You had them right in the palm of your hand,” said Sally when Maxine had recovered from her ordeal.

“I don’t want to ever have to do that again,” said Maxine.

“I think you need a drink,” said a voice from behind her. She turned around to see Cliff smiling from ear to ear.

"Lead on, Macduff!"

---

[Later that day at a post-event gathering]

“From all reports, you had the audience eating out of your hand,” said Garth.

“Why do people keep saying that? From where I stood, it was very much a blur because I was more terrified than anything.”

He laughed.
“Want to do it again when we take the roadshow to Washington?”

"No thanks, Garth. This was strictly a one-off thanks."

“Margot and Kim would love it if you could, but it is your call."

"I know but, I have had my 15 seconds of fame thanks. I'll be quite happy to go back to working behind the scenes. Besides, those hacks at News Max and Fox News, not to mention the New York Post, would love to get at you through exposing me.”

Garth smiled.
“You have a good point. After decades of shunning the limelight, I’m in it even more now than ever. The slimeballs at Fox have already had one go at me. They accused me of running away from a huge tax bill. Thankfully, I have good lawyers who soon put a stop to those accusations. I know that they can't and won't resist any opportunity to have a real good go at me. If they dare to do it again, they'll be hit with a multimillion-dollar defamation suit. I have paid all my taxes and then some and I have the proof from the IRS that I don’t owe a penny.”

Garth smiled.
"Come next May, I'll publish my tax records for them to drool over, not that there is anything to hide. I know why the likes of OAN hate me. That is because one of their biggest advertisers is my old enemy, Frederick Mangan. He’s become even more of a pest since I married Margot. As for paying tax? He’s a past master at avoiding it just like our President [1].”

“We all know that the foundation needs a star to get it noticed. That star is you, my dear Garth. That will pass then you can get back to birding.”

“I’ve discovered that there are Hares in the field behind the house. I’m working at buying a bit of land from the farmer so that I can build a blind this winter. Then we can watch them without disturbing them. They are cute little animals,” said Garth, deliberately changing the subject.

“Blind?”

“Sorry. You call them hides.”

“Ok. I get you. If you don’t mind me saying so, you are close to ‘going native’,” said Maxine.

Garth just laughed.

"I think that someone is trying to attract your attention?" said Garth as he pointed off to Maxine's left.

She turned and looked at the person.
“I know I’ve seen her before but can’t place where and when,” said Maxine.

"I saw her in one of the seminars earlier, but she isn't wearing a delegate's badge. I'll leave you to deal with her. Margot wants to issue a press release and, she has declared that it needs my approval."

Garth walked away leaving Maxine in a bit of a bind. Should she find out who this vaguely familiar person was or ‘do a runner’?”

Before she could make a decision or as she'd just told everyone, 'take a risk' and go over and speak to this woman, her Mother appeared out of nowhere.

“I hear that you had them eating out of your hand in your session?”

Maxine smiled at her mother.
"That is exactly what Garth said to me, less than five minutes ago. I did what was expected of me and, I very much don't want to have to do that again."

“That's rubbish darling, and you know that."

“Who said that I had them eating out of my hand? You weren’t there. I checked before I started speaking.”

Maxine’s mother grinned.
“Someone from your past gave me an update.”

Maxine was dreading finding out who it was and how they’d embarrass her.

After a slight pause, she added,
“No, it wasn’t Dawn. I’d have kicked her sorry backside out of the conference centre and down the road to the Bullring. The people on the front desk have strict orders not to let her come inside even if she turned up.”

"If it wasn't Dawn then, who was it then? I don't think I recognised anyone but, I wasn't really on the lookout for anyone in particular."

“Hayley Brown.”

The mention of that name temporarily threw Maxine.

“Hayley? What was she doing here? I wouldn’t have thought that she was sort of person we were appealing to?”

Her mother smiled.
“Hayley now works for me. She did a lot of the organising and publicity for the event.”

Once again, Maxine was thrown way out of kilter.

"She had been manning the front desk earlier but made sure that she could attend your session. I sat in for her while she watched you speak."

“I… I never knew.”

“I think that she wanted to admire you from afar.”

“How long has she been working for you?”

Maxine’s mother smiled again.
"We originally took her on as a temp just to organise one of Sally's Events. She was so good that we may well offer a permanent position. Hayley had been working as an event organiser for a wedding company but, they went bust around seven months ago. We… that is Sally and, I are thinking of making her job permanent. Unless… that is you'd like to give her a job."

Mothers have this uncanny knack of blindsiding their offspring with a few simple words. Maxine had just been well and truly done over by her mother.

“It isn’t as easy as that. I have approached someone about the position. I’m waiting for their reply.”

“Oh, you mean Ann-Lee?”

“Mum? How did you know about her?”

"Sometimes, Maxine, you can be a thick as two short ones. She’s down as your guest. Then I remembered you speaking about her in glowing terms way back when you had not long gone to work for Adrian. I put two and two together. Was I wrong?”

Maxine shook her head.
“But… why didn’t Hayley make herself known to me?”

"Perhaps she just wanted to see you in action from afar and then make up her very own mind. Perhaps she had seen enough?"

“Anyway, Hayley has just about finished with her duties for the day. She’s over there talking to the caterers.”

Maxine looked across the large foyer in the direction her mother was pointing. After a second or so, she saw Hayley. It was the face from the past that she just could not place only a few minutes before. Hayley had certainly changed a lot since they’d last met. Hayley had been one of Dawn’s and by implication, Tom's/Maxine's circle of friends before Dawn had gone bonkers.

"A lot of things have changed since then, my dear. Both of you are a lot older and wiser."

“That’s true. You say that she has been working on the conference for several months?”

Her mother immediately read Maxine’s mind.
“If you think that she got the job just to meet you, you are wrong. If my memory serves me right, you only agreed to speak about five or six weeks ago. It was only then that you provided me with a brief bio of you for the event publicity? Before that, your slot on the programme was open."

“And Hayley read it and ….?”

“She knew that it was you. There was no point in denying it. After that, whenever I saw her smiling, it was usually because she was looking at a photo of you and her together. She always had a very soft spot for you, you know.”

“It didn’t feel like it at the time. Dawn just wouldn’t let it go for weeks afterwards.”

“Dawn always had a nasty side like that. That is so different from you my darling. I’m so proud to be your mother. Don’t ever forget that.”

Maxine didn’t reply.

“Getting stage fright?” said her mother grinning.

"Mum, please! Once today was bad enough."

“Ok, ok. But please bear in mind that I do know you, and I also know the sort of person you are looking for, and I just happen to think that Hayley would fit the bill perfectly."

Maxine’s reaction to that statement told her mother everything she needed to know.
“Are you afraid of meeting your old girlfriend?”

"Mum! It is not that. I'm a very different person to the one that got used to hanging around with her and Dawns cronies all those years ago."

“Daughter of mine, please don’t lie to me. I know all your tells. That is part of being your mother.”

"Mum! Please. I'm old enough to make my own mistakes, and I'm not going to be railroaded by you or anyone ok! That's all I have to say on the matter! Besides, I have an appointment in Banbury to go to."

Maxine’s mother didn’t argue, her daughter’s body language told her that she wasn’t lying about the appointment.

[to be continued]

[1] This refers to President Trump.