The Lessons Life Teaches, A Collection of Short Stories.

The Choice

For the most part he was friendly, if not charismatic - I have to admit. But he tended to rabbit to conclusions. This would be fine if he had gathered enough facts to support the conclusion. Unfortunately, that was rarely the case. His decisions were generally based on liberal amounts of emotion, perception and supposition. So, without too much deviation, he generally arrived at the wrong conclusion rather rapidly. This almost never caused him much consternation as once he had arrived at a conclusion, he really never changed his mind. Fully believing he was right and consequently others, with differing positions, had to be wrong. Because he was such a fast thinker, he prided himself with his superior intellect. Often depreciating others who, in his mind, over analyzed everything – to only come up with erroneous conclusions.

Due to his quick decision-making ability, he had developed a self-assuredness that projected confidence to most of his superiors, peers and subordinates. That, with his friendliness, helped him to move up in the company's political machine. When there were issues to deal with, he was a strong leader and not adverse to remedying the situation by eliminating perceived offenders who disagreed with him. Which also showcased his leadership ability.

He had married well, developed the right friends and lived comfortably, if not luxuriously. Then one day he realized his crowning achievement, when he was voted in by the board of directors as the new CEO of the company. He was not particularly well qualified for the position, but what he lacked in experience he was believed to make up for in raw intelligence, quick thinking and his leadership style.

His chief rival for the position was an older gentleman who had moved slowly up the ranks of the company. A rather taciturn, stoic gentleman who overanalyzed most situations. A slow plodding individual who was respected by most of his coworkers for his excellent track record but was rather boring and was not enthusiastic nor considered very dynamic. The board believed that he was a great employee, but not a free thinker who would be able to think out of the box to bring explosive growth and new profits to the corporation.

After four years of, at best, lackluster performance, with an eye on crisis management, the board removed their previous dynamic choice for CEO. They replaced him with their second choice who had been languishing in the backwaters of the company.

Immediately upon taking control, he exploded onto the scene by proposing a merger with a rival company to drastically increase market share, and profits. Yes, the new company did lay off many employees who now had duplicate jobs. But he was fair and equitable, helping find them new positions and opportunities inside and outside the company. The company's turnaround was amazing. Through time he continued to be well respected. A solid rock and steady performer for the company.