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“I would in a heartbeat if it were at all possible,” he replied. “But I’ve got too many obligations I need to meet this week for me to be able to personally attend to this client. You are my very first choice to take on the client in my stead, and I’m sure you will make me proud.”
“I have no doubt, but I would like to hear a little more about them,” I said. “If you don’t mind.”
“Oh, you really meant it when you said you didn’t have the time to get to the email?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied. “I really meant it. What’s going on?”
“We were contacted by Jason Wier, the owner of the Starlight hotel chain,” Leroy told me.
“Wow.” My eyes widened at the news, as I didn’t mind showing my genuine surprise. We had worked with some of the biggest names in sports and in Hollywood in the past, but this was the first time we had been contacted by someone who had a full lineup of hotels.
“Wow is right. He’s going to be opening a new chain of hotels across the country, with the first one opening up down in Florida. He’s not at all shy about what he wants, and one of the things he made inescapably clear was the fact that he wants top notch service with someone who knows what they’re doing,” Leroy explained. “Of course, you understand this assignment may mean you’ll be going back and forth to Florida for a few months, but I’m sure that’ll be okay with you, right?”
“I will make sure we give him the best service we can offer,” I promised. “I won’t let you down. And you know me. Travel is one of my favorite parts of this job.”
And it was. I loved being up in the air, and I loved for the chance to see other parts of the country I wouldn’t have visited otherwise. Florida was on the list of places I wanted to go one day, and if this was how I got there, then I was okay with that.
“I know you won’t, which is why I wanted to let you know I’ve already taken the liberty of reassigning all your projects throughout the company. I handed out what you’ve done to the other designers who are equipped to take over, and the new clients you had set to meet with this week are going to be meeting with others. I know you won’t mind.”
While there was a part of me that did, in fact, wish he hadn’t taken the liberty to go ahead and do that to me while I was in the middle of several other projects, I did understand why he did.
Leroy was determined to make a good name for the company with this client. An even better name for the company than what we had right now. But, to do that, he wanted to make sure that I had my undivided attention to give to this client, and to do that, he was going to have to remove me from the other projects I was currently working on.
The only problem with that was the fact that I was the one who put in the effort to pull off several of the designs that were already in motion. That meant that those who took over for me were going to wind up with putting those designs in their own portfolios by the time the projects were completed.
While I knew it was petty of me to be overly worried about who was going to put what in their portfolio, the fact that I wasn’t going to get the final credit for the projects was like a slap in the face for me. Of course, he would only hand off the projects to those who were able to work with what I already put into motion, so the clients would ultimately be happy with their final product, but I was the one who had done the work to get them to that point, and it was annoying that I wasn’t going to be the one to see it through to completion.
But, there was another benefit to this.
If I was the one who took over the project for Leroy from the beginning with this big client, that meant that I would be the only one with my personal name on the design once it was finished. Of course, there would be the bigger name of the company for others to contact in the future over their own projects, but when it came down to who did the design, that would fall to me.
If I did manage to please this client with my work, that meant I would be even bigger than I would be if I were to take all the rest of the other clients and put them all together. It wasn’t what I would have chosen myself, but I could see that there would be benefit to this in the end.
Especially when it came to the commission that would accompany the client.
In fact, it hadn’t been all that long since Leroy had allowed us to take our own tips from the work that we put into each of the projects, and those tips went directly to us. It was part of the incentive for us to take on more work within the company, but since I was the kind of worker who liked to have a full schedule anyway, this wasn’t going to come as any issue to me.
“Oh,” Leroy said when he was turning to go. “There’s one other thing I wanted to discuss with you while I had your attention.”
“Yes?”
“I’m about to go through and hand out the promotions for the designers – but this year, there are only two of you who are going to be getting them. I feel that the work has been reflecting a lot of designers who need to stay at the level they are currently working. However, if you are able to make me happy with this project – and by making me happy, I mean you need to make Mr. Weir happy – then you will be guaranteed one of the promotions. I don’t want to put any more pressure on you than what you are already dealing with, but you can understand that if you don’t make him happy, then we aren’t going to be expecting that promotion, are we?”
I stood silently through his little speech, and merely shook my head when he finished. I knew he was trying to get me to feel more ambitious with the project, but he really did add more pressure to the work than what I was already going to be facing.
Of course, I would do my best no matter what, but now that I knew my promotion was linked to the success of this project, I wanted to make sure more than ever that everything came through perfectly. And that wasn’t always easy with what the client asked for and what was actually available.
But, with my promotion on the line as much as any of the other incentives that were in place to make me do my best, I felt that this truly was going to be a career making change for me.
“I’ll make you proud, sir,” I said with the most confident smile I could muster.
“Great,” he replied, patting the doorframe with his hand. “I knew you were the right one for the job.”
He left me to my thoughts, and I blew out a sigh.
I hoped he was right.
There was a lot weighing on this.
