Unfortunately, I’m late leaving work once again. The pressure at work is almost unbearable. I feel like I’m in a pressure cooker. My wife, Cecily is going to be extremely angry at me because once again I missed dinner with my family and I didn’t call her.

What can I say?  Half the time while I’m at work I don’t know what time it is. I’m on my phone contacting possible new clients or trying to sell new products to our present clients. It’s a dog-eat-dog world here at Capehart Scatchard. If you don’t produce, you are out the door.

This morning while I was shaving, I looked in the mirror and I thought what the hell happened? I have lines on my face and my hair has turned completely white and my hairline has receded in the past ten years. And I’m only thirty-seven years old. 

I haven’t seen my kids in over two weeks, not at dinner and not before they went to bed. I work almost every weekend. It doesn’t help that my wife, Carolyn’s favorite hobby is shopping. She never seems to have enough of anything. Her clothes closet is full, most of the clothes still have their high-end price tags on them. They have never been out of the closet since she purchased them. The price tags represent the who’s who of designer clothing from Hermes to Gucci. Not to mention she is having our five-thousand-foot home redecorated for the fifth time in the last ten years. And just six months ago she went out and purchase an Aston Martin DBX. She assured me that it is the safest family car. It cost $76,000.

I wake up before the alarm goes off. My mind is working a hundred miles an hour. Sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode at any moment. I had a check-up by the corporate physician because I start having migraines in the middle of the day. My head would feel like a pressure cooker, my eyes became super sensitive to light. To tell you the truth I feel like I’m at the end of my rope. Something’s going to blow, I just can’t go on like this.

And then yesterday, right after I had a meeting with my new client a Charles Niedermeyer, I had an idea that might be the answer to all my problems. Niedermeyer is the brains behind a new product that is going to change the transfer of data as we know it. It is lo, T. The internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interconnected computing devices, with the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. The lo T was developed during the pandemic when people were avoiding physical contact with one another.

Now I’m no computer expert and a lot of the information that Niedermeyer bombarded me with was way, way over my head. But even I could see the potential here. But if this new technology can transfer data in a blink of an eye, it seems to me it could transfer many things including funds from one corporate bank account to a new non-traceable account that is not in an actual brick and mortar bank or investment portfolio. And the more I thought about it the more I thought it had real possibilities.

And over the next month, I started planning my escape from my corporate prison to a new life, with a new identity. I would no longer be owned by anyone, not my wife’s bank account and not my boss’s lackey. At first, it was just a kind of daydream when I had a few minutes to myself, over a morning coffee, or at my desk when I ate my lunch while I fielded emails, texts, and phone calls.

But the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. Sometimes I just said to myself, “oh, it’s just a pipe dream, that’s all. I’ll never do it.” But as time went on, I began to hang on to the fantasy of escape like a drowning man to a life preserver. I wake up in the morning thinking about it, in a cold sweat. I dream about it at night if I was finally able to drift off to sleep.

In the middle of a corporate meeting, I find my mind drifting off and thinking about my escape to the Gulf of Panama. There is a trio of undeveloped islands with fifty beaches, more than 19 miles of coastline. But what I have always wanted to do was help preserve at-risk animals and sea life and preserve the last places on earth that haven’t been completely destroyed by humans and pollution. The biodiversity is equal to the Galapagos. Hundreds of birds and plants species and sea turtle-nesting exist there.

This is what I had dreamed about doing when I was young and before I went to college. But then I met my future wife and she came from an extremely wealthy family. She was absolutely stunningly beautiful. I fell hard for her. My family was working class so I knew I would have to achieve success on a grand scale to win her over. And I knew that once I set my sights on something I wouldn’t stop until I succeeded. And so, I changed my goals to finding a career that would bring me wealth and all the things that Cecily grew up with and what she would expect from her future husband. I just didn’t realize how much I would have to give up on myself for her.

And now here I am at what I feel is the crossroad of my whole life. Perhaps it is my last chance to live a life where I can feel I’m doing something that will make a difference in the world. And not just make money but make a difference. I know it is completely selfish of me to leave my wife and my children behind but I will make sure that they will always have the means and the money to go on living the way Cecily wants to. I guess I’m rationalizing away the guilt of abandoning my children. But I’m a stranger to them now as I’m never home and all I do is work, work, work.

Monday morning, I text Mr. Niedermeyer and ask if I could have a private meeting with him and he suggests I come to his private offices at 2:30 that day as he is leaving on an extended business trip at the end of the day.

I will have to keep my plans close to my vest so to speak, Niedermeyer is no ingénue. And I’m sure he has experience with people trying to conn him and that is why I’m going to tell him the truth, nothing but the truth.

I spend the rest of the morning and afternoon planning my ultimate escape. I have tied up all the business ends. And made sure that my wife and children are well taken care of financially. I feel like my life is about to take a turn for the better and my wife will no doubt find someone else in no time at all. And my children will be fine as they rarely see me now. So, it’s all good.

So, I arrive at 2:30 sharp at Mr. Niedermeyer’s office. I’m greeted by his assistant at the door. “Hello, I’m Jeffrey Golden, I have an appointment to speak to Mr. Niedermeyer at 2:30.”

“Of course, Mr. Golden Mr. Niedermeyer is in his private office. Please give me a few moments to inform him that you have arrived he is just finishing up some business. Please have a seat and it will only be a few minutes.”

“Thank you.” It wasn’t until that very moment that I noticed how unbelievably beautiful she was. In fact, she was one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Of course, my wife was beautiful as well. Unfortunately, it turned out that her beauty was only a façade for a spoiled young woman who was never satisfied.

As I sat waiting for Mr. Niedermeyer’s assistant to let me know that I could go into Mr. Niedermeyer’s office I reviewed what I was going to say to him and hopefully persuade him to underwrite my plan. In a few moments, the assistant said, “you can go in now Mr. Golden, Mr. Niedermeyer can see you now.”

My heartbeat was a little faster and I felt my face flush. I stopped for a moment outside his door and took several deep breaths. “I open the door and walk in and I’m confronted by the largest office I have ever entered. It is absolutely stunning. The furniture looks one of a kind. The walls are a background for what looks like highly expensive paintings. In fact, although I’m not an art connoisseur I do recognize that one of the paintings is a Monet. “Good morning, thank you for taking the time to see me.”

“Well, I have to say I’m intrigued by your vague description of the reason you wanted to speak to me. So, why not begin I only have about a half-hour before I have to leave for the airport, I’m having a meeting with former World Bank chief scientist and now the British government’s scientific adviser on climate change, Bob Watson.”

“Really that is somewhat of a coincidence because I came here to have a conversation with you about my interest in saving our planet and the environment. In particular, there is in the Gulf of Panama three undeveloped islands with fifty beaches. There is almost twenty miles of coastline The biodiversity is equal to that of the Galapagos. There are hundreds of bird and plant species and sea turtle-nesting grounds—and they’re for sale. I have been investing in one of these islands for the past fifteen years. I have invested some of my clients, money in this project as well. Those clients who are interested in saving our planet and not just in increasing their bank accounts.

Before I had my original meeting with you, I found that you too have similar concerns and wanted to invite you to join with my group of investors in this project and perhaps in similar projects in the future?”

“Mr. Golden I am more than aware of your interest in the future of the planet and the environment. This is why I came to your firm. And yes, I was waiting for you to contact me on this matter. And I hope we can continue working towards our goals together. I would like to suggest that you come with me to my meeting with Bob Watson, I think you will find you have many things in common with him. Are you interested?”

“I’m more than interested, I’m enthralled with the idea, I have wanted to do this all my life. So, yes, yes, I would love to come. In fact, I was planning on going to the airport to go see how the investment I’ve been contributing for the past fifteen years is faring. I have my belongings in my car. This is the opportunity I’ve been looking forward to all my life. It is a dream come true. More than anything I want my life to have meaning and make the world a better place.”

“So, shall we have a toast to a new beginning? Can I call you by your first name, James?”

“Yes, but please call me Jim.”

 

“Please call me Alan, Jim.”

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