Money Chase: The world of cooperate madness

In a world where fast money and crime move, A new executive is introduced to create order. will his experience and resilience help him? take a walk with him through this new path.

“Good day ladies and gentlemen. I count it an honor to speak to y’all. If you can take the time to read the papers in front of you….”

“Why should we trust you?”

 Mr. Richard wasn’t even done with his introductory speech before he was shot with a question from the crowd of cooperative executives gathered there.

You--you said what? Mr. Richard stuttered. “I can assure you I have….”

He tried to continue before he was interrupted again.

“Your reputation of deception follows you and unfortunately what you are known for; why then should you be the one to lead us?” One female executive asked.

Everything about the questions being thrown at him expressed the kind of tensed atmosphere that filled the room. There were even rumors that some executives tried to throw hands a day before.

But Mr. Richard was no stranger to these kinds of hostile environments. This was nothing compared to some meetings he has been in. He often loved to say; “I didn’t get to where I am by being soft-skinned. I am a human being with a crocodile’s back.’

He immediately followed the female-executive question with a corresponding response.

“It’s so unfortunate that someone of your caliber would conclude the process of my achievements as deceptive. But what I won’t allow is my leadership capability to be put in question, when there are clear results out there and everywhere to show. I should be the one who should demand answers on why any of you should remain in any management and executive capacity in this organization; your failure and ineptitude in accountability and overseeing the operation of the previous chairman is the reason I’m here in the first place. So before any of you try to put me on the hot seat. You should be very aware that none of you deserve to be in this room.”

 Mr. Richard’s voice was so loud even the halls below could faintly hear him.

He continued; but if any of you still insist that my style of management should be brought to question, then I must present an offer to first initiate an investigation to prosecute all those involved in the mismanagement and embezzlement of the company’s fund and bet me when I say all those involved will be brought to the books. So, which one is it? My offer? -- Or can we now get ahead with the introduction?

As Mr. Richard turned off his mic and the executives began to introduce themselves more warmly. One won’t almost believe that it was the same executives who were almost ready to chew his skin off his body.

Mr. Richard surely did enough to reset the mood of the executives and the tense nature of the room with that offer. He used that offer to place them in a chokehold. After all, before the takeover, Mainland Pharmaceuticals was always in the news for the worse reasons; from financial embezzlement, questionable finances, staff and management misconduct, and sexual harassment to mention just a few. One would even wonder how the company is still standing.

The inability of the company to pay the loans taken from Mr. Rich’s bank, heritage bank PLC, where he was formerly chief financial officer, has resulted in the immediate takeover of management operations of the firm. The takeover process among many things would also see Mr. Rich become the new chairman of Mainland Pharmaceuticals LTD. A billion-dollar organization with active operation in several regional blocs around the world with its HQ situated in Paris, France.

Mr. Rich didn’t know how to react when he first got the news that he would be heading one of the biggest blue-chip companies in Europe. He considered it a promotion from his previous job even though being a CFO wasn’t bad either.

It was already in the news before he could even agree to it. Mr. Rich just wasn’t the regular. He has spent Over 35 years in the cooperative workspace and has gained more experience and victories than almost any one of his caliber. It was impossible to make a list of top-proficient executives in the last 15 years without mentioning him. Some of his achievements have been described as mind-blowing and far-reaching.

Many of his colleagues advised him to turn it down as he would be stepping on what would be dangerous ground due to the kind of suspicious activities surrounding the company. But even though He acknowledged their concerns, he felt indifferent towards them. He believed everything he has experienced throughout his career and lifetime has already prepared him for dangerous waters such as this.

 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

It was 7:30 Monday morning. He had just finished answering the 3^rd call for the morning congratulating him on his new milestone. He has become accustomed to this type of routine since he was announced 4 days ago as the latest chairman in town. Governors, ministers, personnel in high cooperate positions, and International bodies were all part of those ringing his phone for the past few days. All these calls testified to his proficiency and years spent in the cooperate world. He even got calls from his critics and companies he would now be competing against. The calls were truly from all over.

Mr. Rich was about to answer the next call that morning when the doorbell rang.

Who’s it? He said.

It’s your delivery Sir, The voice answered.

Deliveries? I didn’t make any order �" Mr. Rich said

Yes sir, someone asked us to deliver a gift to you. The delivery man replied.

 

Someone must have gone a long way to making an impression. It wasn’t strange for a man of status to receive surprise gifts during periods like this.

Give it to the security, they’ll bring it to me. �"the dialogue continued.

Sorry sir but I can’t see any here.

What do you mean you can’t see any? Okay, I will send my steward to get it from you.

Okay sir!!

Mr. Rich turned to one of his stewards �" “Sarah go get me the deliveries at the gate, then tell the driver to get the car ready, we will be leaving soon.”

Also, call me my damn Head of security, what the hell do they think this is? A vacation??? --- He added

He picked up his phone to return the missed call but there was no response at the other end. He dropped the phone. Just immediately he heard a knock on his bedroom door. It must be his security chief.

He opened the door, it was his security chief.

Where the hell --- he didn’t finish before he saw blood dripping from his face.

What-tha-hell… before he could finish he felt pains in his chest.

What happening? Everything was happening so fast. If he was to trust his ears; those where gunshots he heard. In minutes, he was down on the floor looking lifeless. He was already lying in a pool of his blood.

He had a faint look around him and all he saw were heavily armed men with weapons about five of them. One was trying to say something. He was struggling to hear �" it was something about the deliveries.

One of the men came closer, grabbed his lifeless body, and shouted “I hope you love your deliveries sir? Ensure to leave a 5-star rating for us.” then pushed him back to the floor as they all laughed themselves away.

In Minutes Mr. Rich was dead. It was a pathetic scene. Dead bodies littered all over his compound --- Bodies of his stewards, security and driver were all lying in cold blood. Really as the shooter said, it was a 5-rated job. This would take a chunk out of Anyone’s pocket. Whoever sent this gift must have a heavy wallet and a taste for professional work.

Congratulatory messages would now turn to Condolence messages ---- But this time for his family. Thank goodness he insisted on them not following him and staying in Italy.  

 

But the story had just begun. 

Author's Note

tell me how I could have done it better.

Reviews

[JayG]

How to do it better?

First, dump the red font. Make the reading easy for the reader. Playing with fonts and color is like adding glitter instead of skill.

Next, justify the text, don't center it. And either indent each paragraph by using the top of the page ruler on your word processer for a 5 character indent, or double space between paragraphs.

So much for the easy part.🤪

Now comes the approach to writing:

• “Good day ladies and gentlemen. I count it an honor to speak to y’all. If you can take the time to read the papers in front of you….”

You started the story with someone unknown, in an unknown place, for unknown reasons, talking to an unknown number of people, about papers which are there for unknown reasons. You know where we are. The speaker knows. All the people in the room know. But the one you wrote this for? They have not a clue. So right here is where a publisher or agent's first-reader would stop reading,

There's a LOT to writing fiction that's not obvious. The approach to presenting the story is dramatically different from the one we learned while writing all those reports and essays in school.

In this, you're transcribing yourself telling the story as if at a campfire. But...can the reader know the emotion you place in your voice as you read? Can they know where to take a meaningful pause for breath? How about when to whisper and when to shout? Nope. Nor can they know what facial expression changes you'd make, your gestures, or, body-language.

So in the end, you give them a storyteller's script without the stage direction, synopsis, or rehearsal time.

To write fiction you need the skills of the Fiction-Writing profession. There's no way around that or shortcut, other then to not look for shortcuts. The skills aren't hard to find, or any more difficult to learn than the nonfiction skills we're given in school—though in truth perfecting them is a b***h. But even then, the learning of something you want to know is never a chore, and as you progress, the act of writing becomes more fun.

The library's fiction-writing section can be a great resource. Personally? I’d suggest starting with Dwight Swain’s, Techniques of the Selling Writer, which recently came out of copyright protection. It's the best I've found, to date, at imparting and clarifying the "nuts-and-bolts" issues of creating a scene that will sing to the reader. The address of an archive site where you can read or download it free is just below. Copy/paste the address into the URL window of any Internet page and hit Return to get there.

https://archive.org/details/TechniquesOfTheSellingWriterCUsersvenkatmGoogleDrive4FilmMakingBsc_ChennaiFilmSchoolPractice_Others

Try a few chapters. I'm betting you'll end up reading it all.

So...I know this wasn't what you hoped to hear, but it is something we need to know. And like the proverbial chicken soup for a cold, it might not help, but it sure can't hurt.

So dive in. And as you do, hang in there, and keep on writing.

Jay Greenstein
https://jaygreenstein.wordpress.com/category/the-craft-of-writing/the-grumpy-old-writing-coach/