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“Do you know why I’ve asked you to my office, Don?” I began. With the lab results face down on the table in front of me, I folded my palms over the top of them as I continued. “You must have some idea.”
“Well, I’m assuming it has something to do with that disastrous teleconference.”
I nodded as I looked at him, framing my expression with a solemn look of concern.
“Yes, Don, that’s exactly right. What we’ve got to do right now is to figure out how to get them back on board.”
Don wrinkled his brow as he scoffed at me.
“Get them on board? Gabe… Do I need to remind you what you said to them?”
“No. I’m well aware of what I said. I meant every word of it.”
Don let out a long exhale.
“Gabe, listen, you and I have worked together for many years. I respect you, and believe me when I say that I understand why you did what you did. But, be that as it may, the simple fact is that I think you were out of line.”
“I’m listening,” I began, as I gestured for him to continue. “Please tell me where you think I went wrong.”
Don cleared his throat and leaned over the conference table.
“Well, Gabe, I think that flying off the handle like you did at them just wasn’t necessary. I get you’re frustrated they don’t seem to be supporting you as they once did, but let’s be frank here. The Link Protocol is… a disaster. You know it, I know it and they know it. There. I’ve said it. I think we all wanted to see the company grow and flourish as a result of it, but Gabe, there’s a time when you just have to let things go. You’ve got to accept this failure and move on. And don’t burn every bridge you have while doing it.”
I smiled as Don laid out his thorough line of reasoning.
“I see.”
Before I could get another word in, Don continued, “Gabe, not everyone wins, not even you. It’s okay to lose—it happens to all of us.”
When he finished speaking, I began to lean back in my chair. As I did, I grasped Fiona’s report between my fingers, flipped it over and tossed it across the table to Don. He watched the stack spin in place and come to a stop directly beneath his face.
He glanced up at me. “What is this?”
I smirked at him. “I don’t lose Don. Not ever.” Grasping my pen in my hand once again, I pointed it at him for emphasis. “You, of all people, should know that.”
He looked at me in silence for a moment and then began to thumb through the pages. Within seconds, I watched his grim expression brighten. Without even reaching the end of the results, he snapped his head up and locked eyes with me.
“Is this a joke?”
I shook my head back and forth.
“No, it isn’t. The game is on, Don. Now let’s make this happen.”
A smile came to Don’s face.
“Incredible, Gabe. Wow, I’m speechless.”
By now I’d fully reclined in my chair. I wrapped my hands around the arms of it and winked at him.
“There’s a first time for everything I suppose.”
Don chuckled. “Fair enough. So what does this mean?”
“Well,” I began, as I reached up and stroked my chin. “I’m going to make some phone calls and see if I can patch things up. In the meantime, I want you and your team to arrange for another outing in St. Barth’s.”
“You sound optimistic.”
Nodding, I gestured towards the paper in front of him with my chin.
“I have every reason to be, don’t I?”
“If this is right? Damn straight you do.”
“Oh, it’s right, Don. It’s right.”
Several hours later, I’d placed a series of phone calls to the investors I had the most rapport with. It was bumpy at first, but now that we had the results, I had no question lining up the funding would be simple—a lay-down deal. As the minutes and hours ticked by and I brought more and more of them back into the fold, I was all but convinced our second trip to the islands would be the smashing success the first one should’ve been.
In fact, things went so smoothly there was a part of me that was a bit resentful.
It’s hard to explain, but even though I realized we’d been slow with our progress, I never lost faith we would get the job done. If nothing else, I learned an important lesson about my partners. It’s a shame they didn’t share my confidence, but so long as we could move past it in a professional way, I decided not to shut them out of the deal.
Once I’d wrapped up my calls, only one thing remained and that was informing Fiona the presentation was back on. I asked Holly to get hold of her and bring her to my office so I could discuss the plan in detail. After she arrived, I offered her a seat across from my desk, and as she took it, I slid into my chair.
