Chapter 44: The Utmost Confidence

March 24, 1996, Chicago, Illinois

“You don’t think she was serious?” Kara asked with a smirk.

Kara, Jessica, and I were in the sauna late on Sunday afternoon, where we’d gone as soon as I’d arrived home from San Diego.

“No. It was all in good fun. That’s a pretty good group of young adults and professors. And they all seem to have their heads screwed on straight.”

“What did Meredith say?”

“Nothing. She was pissed at me and decided not to attend. She told Phil Edwards that something had come up, but I’m sure it was the fact that I ended our relationship.”

“But Jasmine was OK?”

“Yes. We had our drinks on Thursday night after I had dinner with Ben and she went home without making a fuss. But she didn’t make a fuss when I called her, either. In fact, she didn’t even flirt.”

“How is she doing?”

“Great. She’s coming to Chicago in April to talk to Stan Jakes about a Summer internship. If neither of you objects, I’ll offer her the nanny room for the Summer.”

“What about other visitors?”

“We’ll put Dmitry and Tanya up in the loft apartment,” I said. “Elena has no plans to stay here, and Karla should be here before Maria Cristina moves in, if she decides to.”

“I think you’ll get your new «ménage à quatre»,” Kara replied. “In the proper meaning of that term.”

“Household of four?”

“Yes. Jess and I will be close to her, but not THAT close!”

“Closer than with Elyse?”

“Yes. Remember, you had a pre-existing relationship with Elyse. This one is very different.”

“True. I had pre-existing relationships, though not to the same extent, with Samantha and Michelle, too.”

“I think it sets important boundaries,” Kara continued. “Boundaries which Samantha understood but Michelle apparently didn’t. And which let us mentor her as much as you do. That’s especially true for Jess, who I think will be very important to Maria Cristina.”

“As an example of what NOT to do,” Jessica sighed.

“Get involved in my circus?” I teased.

“You know darn well that was the RIGHT thing to do,” Jessica said fiercely. “I know you think the situation with Rachel was the trigger, but it could have been anything, really. SOMETHING would have happened which would have set me off, either sooner or later, depending. I needed exactly what you and Kara could provide, I just didn’t understand to what degree, and that I’d need it forever, not just to become an Attending. The stress is enough to drive people to drink, to drugs, and to suicide.”

“Something I’ve pointed out to Al many times,” I said.

“And something we all know, but nobody does anything about. Oh, they pay lip service, and they have special rehab clinics to deal with the worst of the bad outcomes, but nobody is actually trying to fix the root cause.”

“You’re preaching to the choir,” I said. “Even with what’s going on with the fallout from Libby Zion in New York, the medical community is resisting the changes! But, and this won’t surprise you, I blame government because by taking on the majority of funding for Residents, they put the hospitals in a bind.”

“Don’t you think hospitals would try to cut corners?” Kara asked.

“They do now, and the fact that, in effect, the government provides the headcount numbers, they have a built-in defense by saying they’re following the government guidelines and funding. Moral hazard!”

“Because there is no real responsibility assigned, except in the rarest of instances,” Jessica said. “The problem is, unless we fix the core problems, everyone can point to those as the cause and as such, nobody is held responsible and nothing changes. Socialized medicine doesn’t help, because there is still a limited amount of money to go around and you have to pick and choose where to spend it. As Steve likes to say, it’s all in who gets to make the decisions.”

“And bureaucrats are the LAST ones I want to do that, whether they work for the government or insurance companies,” I said. “It’s why Al is so vehemently opposed to anyone who is not an actual, practicing physician being in management anywhere in the hospital, except perhaps custodial services! He objected to the new CFO being a pure finance guy, and his logic was sound. This isn’t, and can never be, purely about ‘bean counting’. A dual-trained physician would be the right solution, but there aren’t many of those. Jess is one of those, with her training to manage an ER.”

“Which I’ll probably never get to do,” she sighed.

“Never is a long time, Babe,” I said. “And besides, Doctor Al isn’t going anywhere anytime soon!”

“True. We have an hour before dinner. Want to fool around? We can order Chinese instead of cooking!”

“Deal!” Kara and I both exclaimed.

March 25, 1996, Chicago, Illinois

“I am SO glad you can work with me again, Sensei Steve!” Marcia declared on Monday evening.

“Me, too. How are things at home?”

“Good. My dad is totally cool and doesn’t try to watch me every second of every day the way my mom did.”

“Do you see her?”

Marcia shook her head, “No. We had a huge argument about you, and I told her that when I turn eighteen I didn’t want to see her ever again.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong! She’s crazy! She accused me of sleeping with you, for Pete’s sake! My dad agrees she’s crazy, by the way.”

“My advice is to give her some time to calm down, then try to talk to her. Maybe a few months, maybe even a few years. I can say this because my mom was, and is, equally nuts. But we’re at least civil towards each other now because of the grandkids.”

“But she didn’t make crazy accusations like that!”

“Oh yes she did,” I said with a smile. “Repeatedly. And about an older woman. So I know how you’re feeling. You can ask Kara if you want to confirm that. Shall we get to work?”

“Yes!”

We spent the majority of the class session working on black belt techniques. Marcia was 1st Kyu now, and soon enough, she’d be ready to take her test.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“I think the smart strategy is to compete as a brown belt for Memorial Day, then take the black belt test, and compete as a black belt for Labor Day.”

“And how will I do?”

“You’ll win Memorial Day. Labor Day is a VERY different thing. Sensei Jim lost in the early rounds his first few times. Then he became state champ. Remember, there will be competitors who have had their black belts for years.”

“Can you teach me to win?”

“Yes, if you have it within you to win. I can only teach you technique and mentor you. The will to win has to come from inside you. If you don’t approach it with the right spiritual mindset, you won’t win.”

“It’s that different from sparring as a lower belt?”

“Very much so. Self-discipline is far more important the higher you go because all your opponents will be disciplined. Think about your first competition and what happened in the early rounds.”

“I won easily because I had better technique and was better trained.”

“You had much better mental discipline than most. That isn’t going to be true once you put on the black belt. And remember, at that point you have a serious responsibility to the dojo and to Sensei Jim.”

“And to you.”

“Yes, but always remember, he is «Shihan», the Master of this dojo. And we are all responsible to Hideki «Shihan» in Japan. Every single thing you do as a black belt will be scrutinized and will reflect on this dojo and the entire school. Remember that.”

She nodded, “It’s a huge responsibility, isn’t it?”

“Yes. And one you have to choose to shoulder. If not, then please don’t test for your black belt.”

“May I say something about that?”

“Sure. As my military friends say, ‘permission to speak freely’.”

“You’re a much better teacher than Sensei Jim.”

“For you, perhaps,” I said. “I’d be a LOUSY teacher for someone like me.”

“That makes no sense!” Marcia protested.

“Sure it does. When I was your age, and just starting, I’d have walked out of the dojo and never returned if Sensei Jim tried to teach me the way I teach you. Therese has a different style, too. And so does Will. And so do Kara and Jolene. There are reasons why Sensei Jim assigns different black belts to different tasks.”

“May I ask about Sensei Molly?”

“She chose me because I am the way I am. That’s what she needs. And that’s what you need.”

“My dad was right about you,” she said. “He insisted to my mom that you knew exactly how to teach me and how to help me win. And that was all that mattered.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“He’s so different from my mom. When she first accused me, he asked if we were, you know, and when I said ‘no’, he believed me and accepted it.”

“Because he trusts you,” I said with a smile. “And that is an important lesson for you to learn for the day you become a parent.”

“Oh God no!” Marcia said, recoiling in horror but laughing. “Talk to me in ten years!”

I laughed, “I hear you, but there’s no reason not to learn the lesson now and apply it later in life.”

“Thanks for treating me like an adult,” she said with a smile of her own.

“You ARE an adult,” I said. “Now, let’s go line up for dismissal.”

“Thanks, Sensei Steve. You’re awesome!”

March 28, 1996, Chicago, Illinois

“That’s an interesting idea,” Beth said after I explained my strategy for combating Peach to the Board. “Would it be self-installed?”

“Yes,” I said. “But if someone wanted us to set it up, it would be done by the on-site team at our usual hourly rate. And the same would be true for all support calls.”

“Would you do the same thing you do now with chargeable calls and bugs?” my dad asked.

“Yes. That applies across the board to any service we provide. If you call to report a bug, and we confirm it, there are no charges. One thing we’d require would be that any system it’s installed on has to have either internet access or a modem so that they could download patches. We won’t send out diskettes. The same is true for the quarterly updates.”

“Would the initial install be done that way?” Beth asked.

“No,” I said. “We’ll send out diskettes with the software. The manuals will be included in the software’s ‘help’ function. Printed manuals could be purchased. The only printed thing they’ll get is a short ‘self-install’ guide. It’s the only way we can keep the price low enough to basically match Dante’s pricing and make money.

“The goal is, as I wrote in the proposal, no more than 5% gross margin. In order to achieve that, it has to be minimalist, AND it has to look radically different from our current offerings and have significantly fewer features. If we don’t do that, we’ll suffer from pricing pressure on our much more lucrative offerings. We’ll do our best to match Dante feature for feature, but there are a few things we simply can’t include without risking our more profitable business.”

“Doesn’t the Peach system simply scale up?” Al asked.

“Yes, and according to Cindi, that puts pricing pressure on him in that he can’t charge nearly as much for licenses. And in the end, that means he’d lose money on the biggest deals. He’s fine up to about twenty or so seats. Above that, and the cost of support becomes higher. He’ll have to either raise his prices or limit the support he gives. And that plays right into our hands.

“We learned, early on, that there are three distinct market segments. We purposefully didn’t get into the ‘sole proprietor’ market segment because of the issues I’ve outlined in the proposal. Now we’re big enough to have a small team dedicated to what amounts to a separate product, but which will be sold under the same name. Dante can compete in the small to medium space, but not the big, national firms or firms with multiple offices.

“In that upper market segment, we compete with Hastings Mill Software and Chickasaw Systems, neither of whom are working in the ‘sole proprietor’ space, and very likely for the same reason we stayed out of it. It’s a low-margin business with a lot of potential headaches. We couldn’t have done this five years ago. Heck, we probably couldn’t have done this two years ago.

“The other advantage we have over all our competitors is that we have the medical software, consulting, and on-site support divisions. Those provide sufficient revenue for us to tackle something like this. Now, that also gives Hastings Mill and Chickasaw a bit of FUD that they are using against us, saying we’re not focused.”

“This has an awful lot of moving parts,” Karl said.

“Yes, it does. But if we continue to allow Dante to eat away at small-to-medium sized law offices, we’ll lose quite a bit of revenue. He has a distinct advantage of getting in on the ‘ground floor’, if you will, for newly minted lawyers before they add attorneys to their own firms. And then, if they do outgrow his systems, it’s an open playing field between us, Hastings Mill, Chickasaw, and the regrouping Lone Star.

“And on that last note, we know Dallas Capital is going to want to sell at some point. Lone Star lost a bit more than half their customers, mostly to us, but some to Hastings Mill and Chickasaw. According to Cindi’s latest analysis, they’re back in the black, though it’s a dicey thing. We need to worry about them selling to one of our competitors, with Peach being the most dangerous.”

“Would you consider another offer?” Joyce asked.

“Only if they buy out Nathan first. In fact, I think they’ll have to, or nobody will touch them with a ten-foot pole. Pretty much every man and his dog knows what went down when we tried to buy them.”

“No more Brits in your house, Steve!” Doctor Barton laughed. “You picked up WAY too many Anglicisms from Sweeney Todd!”

“Beth,” Joyce asked, “what’s your take on using new graduates as developers, overseen by a senior engineer?”

“I think it can work, and it does provide both inexpensive staff, plus a ready-made pool to promote from. Even if it only breaks even, the value added by training new engineers on something like this before turning them loose on the flagship software makes a lot of sense.”

“I think you can call the question, Joyce,” my dad said.

She did, and the Board approved the plan 5-0.

“Steve, your other proposal took me by complete surprise,” Joyce said. “I seriously considered asking Al to call you in for a checkup!”

I laughed, “In other words, you think I need my head examined? Well, so do I!”

“Steve Adams proposing hiring a lawyer had me wondering about having a commitment hearing!” Karl laughed. “Anyone who knows him would believe he’d gone ‘round the bend!”

“I went through this with Jamie, and he would remain our outside counsel, but we’d have someone in-house to handle all of the routine things we have to do. We’d look for someone who was interested in both contract and employment law, and that would allow us to reduce the spend with both Allen & Baker as well as with the HR consultant. Elyse calls it a wash in terms of expenses, in the end.”

“Do you have someone in mind?” my dad asked.

“No. What I discussed with Jamie was bringing in a new graduate and having Allen & Baker review their work at first. That’s actually a lower hourly rate than if they’re doing the legwork. We’re at the right time, too, as interviews are underway for the 3Ls. Melanie will put us in touch with someone at John Marshall and Jamie with someone at Kent College of Law. We’ll find someone.”

“You’ll be competing against all the big firms,” Karl said.

“One of the things we’ll ask for is middle-of-the-pack students who want to stay in the Chicago area,” I said. “Ones who would have to get incredibly lucky to land a position with a big firm. Melanie thinks we’ll find a good, solid candidate in that population.”

“What about a JAG lawyer who is considering resigning their commission?”

“Got someone in mind, Commander?”

“Maybe. I know someone who is not looking forward to an assignment in Japan.”

“Are you SURE you want someone with THAT attitude interviewing with Steve?” Al laughed.

“He has a wife and two small kids. An overseas assignment is not what he wants, but it’s what the Navy needs. They’re debating it now.”

“Doesn’t he have better opportunities than a small Chicago IT firm?” I asked.

“Let’s see; new associate at a firm having to bill 2200 hours, and being a lackey for everyone, despite being admitted to practice in Federal Court for four years versus what would be a low-pressure nine-to-five job? Your benefits plan versus a normal law firm? And a through-and-through Chicago kid from the South Side who is a total family man? And you know what we get paid.”

“Not enough,” I replied. “Have him send me a résumé, Commander.”

“Steve, can I ask why you didn’t bring this up at the regular meeting last week?” Al asked.

“I only decided to actually move forward when I was flying back from San Diego. I went through all the pros and cons and finally decided that yes, I had indeed, completely lost my mind and should hire an in-house attorney.”

All five Board members laughed. Joyce called the question and the Board approved hiring in-house counsel. She adjourned the meeting and I asked Karl to stay on the line.

“Karl, before I let you go, I wish I had a tape recording of the interview I did this morning.”

“Oh?”

“Kid had served in the Marines, based in Japan. We got to talking and he more or less bragged about how he got out without a dishonorable discharge after going AWOL to spend time with his Japanese girlfriend.”

“Oops,” he said.

“Yeah,” I said with a small sigh.

“Sadly, a lot of situations such as that they do an administrative separation with no negative items in the public record. It’s just easier on the Navy. I take it you vetoed him?”

“When I mentioned that my dad was a retired Chief, that you were on the Board of Directors, and I told him about Nick Evans, he turned pale, apologized for wasting my time, and left.”