The Fall and Rise of David Beckman

Author's Note: Once again I want to thank Techsan for taking time from his busy schedule to edit this story for me. This is a lengthy story so I have divided it into four parts.

Please provide feedback. It is the only payback we authors get for our efforts. Thanks

Part 1

I was too upset to sleep. Erica had actually called me a loser. True things had gone bad for me over that last two weeks but I wasn't a loser. I was in bed lying on top of the blankets with my hands behind my head as I reviewed the argument in my head.

I was having, without a doubt, the worst two weeks of my life. My boss had accused me of being either incompetent or unethical and had fired me. I was still confused about what had happened. On top of everything else, on Wednesday Erica came home and announced that she was going to Los Angeles for a week of training and that she would be leaving Monday morning.

So on Sunday night I asked her to reschedule the class and stay home with me. To say that my request made her angry would be an understatement.

"You want me to give up this opportunity because you screwed up and lost your job?" Erica shouted. "You know my job is just as important to me as yours was to you and now that I am the only one of us with a job it's even more important."

"I know this is important to you," I said. "I just thought that under the circumstances you could arrange to take that class later. I am not doing too well with this situation and I would like to have your support to help me get through this."

"You're such a loser," Erica said. "This is your own fault. All you had to do was ask Bill to help you and this never would have happened. You just had to try and do this on your own and you fucked it up. Now you have lost your job and your self-respect. Well, don't expect to drag me down with you."

As I lay there with my thoughts, I could hear Erica in the bathroom filling the tub for her bath. Erica likes long baths so I knew she would be in there for a while. I just hoped that when she came to bed she would be in a better mood. She was going to be leaving the following morning for LA and I didn't want us to still be angry with each other when she left.

While Erica soaked in the tub, I tried to make sense of what had happened to me.

*****

In 1993, I was a senior at Purdue University majoring in engineering with a minor in marketing. Two months before graduation I attended a job fair where I met James Green. Mr. Green was the personnel manager for Boswell Data Services, which was located in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Green was impressed with my resume and my grade point average so he asked me to come to Atlanta for an interview after graduation. The job fair had given me many good leads but Mr. Green's invitation to come for an interview looked at the time like the best opportunity.

Two weeks after graduation, I drove from my home in Michigan to Atlanta for the interview. Mr. Green introduced me to Marty O'Brien, the sales manager, who then did the interview. Marty O'Brien was tall and thin with a full head of silver gray hair. I guessed him to be in his late fifties. The interview began with Mr. O'Brien telling me to call him Marty. We talked for about an hour and then Marty thanked me for coming in and asked where I was staying while I was in Atlanta and how long I planned to be in town.

"I'm staying at the Red Roof Inn out on I-75 and I was planning on being here for another day," I said.

"Good. We should have an answer for you by tomorrow," Mr. O'Brien said as he stood and shook my hand. He smiled and gave me a conspiratorial wink. "While you are waiting to hear from us, you might want to look around for a place to live."

That evening Mr. Green called me at the Red Roof and asked me to come back into the office in the morning. When I got there, Mr. O'Brien offered me a job as a sales representative. He explained the job and what I would be responsible for and then explained the salary and benefits package and asked me if I was interested. I happily accepted the offer.

Mr. O'Brien wanted me to start on the first of July, which gave me two weeks to find a place to live and arrange to move myself from Michigan to Atlanta. That afternoon I managed to find a very nice apartment in Marietta. The apartment building was on a hill overlooking the Chattahoochee River with access to the walking and jogging trails that run along the river. I signed the lease that afternoon and spent the night sleeping on the floor and in the morning I drove back to Michigan to get my belongings. I was back in Georgia within the week and spent the rest of my time buying furniture and finding my way around the area.

When I arrived for my first day of work on the first of July, Mr. Green showed me around the facility and introduced me to the other employees that were in the building that morning. Boswell Data Services (BDS) sold computer hardware, software and services throughout the state of Georgia and my first two weeks on the job were spent in the classroom, learning about those products and services. I was also given training on how to properly execute a sales call.

When I had completed my training, Marty O'Brien called me into his office and told me that I had done exceptionally well in the training and he felt that I would be very successful at BDS.

"David, today I am going to have you ride with Jeff Henning on some sales calls," Mr. O'Brien said. "We will have you riding with him for the rest of this week and then you will get your own territory next week. Jeff will be in to pick you up shortly but before you go Mike wants to speak with you."

"Mike?"

"Oh, that's right, you haven't met Mike Boswell yet," Mr. O'Brien said. "Mike is the owner and president of the company. Mike likes to meet the new people before they start out in the field. His office is upstairs at the far end of the floor. Just tell his secretary who you are and that Mike had asked to see you. Good luck, David."

I shook hands with Marty and thanked him and then headed up stairs feeling a bit nervous. I was about to meet the president of the company and, while I was confident that I would make a favorable impression, I was still nervous.

Mr. Boswell's private office had windows that looked out over the entire floor so I could see him sitting at his desk as I approached. He looked to be in his late forties or early fifties. He had dark but thinning hair and his body had the girth of a man that spends a lot of time sitting.

Hi, I'm David Beckman, a new sales rep here," I said to the secretary. "I believe that Mr. Boswell wanted to see me."

"Hi, David. I'm Marcie," she said. "I'm Mike's secretary. Welcome to BDS. I'll tell Mike you're here."

Marcie picked up her phone and spoke briefly and put the phone down. "Mike will be with you shortly," Marci said.

I thanked Marci and sat down to wait. From where I was sitting I could see that Mr. Boswell was reading a Car and Driver magazine. I watched him for fifteen minutes until he put the magazine down and pick up his phone.

"You can go in now," Marci said.

When I walked into his office Mr. Boswell stood up and shook my hand.

"David Beckman, right?"

"Yes, sir, that's correct," I said.

"Call me Mike," he said. "Have a seat."

For the next ten minutes, we made small talk. Mr. Boswell showed me the Car and Driver magazine he had been reading and said that he was going to buy a new car and was looking for ideas to help him decide on what he wanted. Finally Mike got down to business. He talked about his company and how he only wants the best people working for him and he expects his employees to give 100 percent everyday on the job.

I assured him that it was my intention to do just that. That's when Mr. Boswell knocked the wind from my sails.

"Jim and Marty seem to think highly of you. They seem to think that you are a good fit for the company," Mike said. I was beginning to feel comfortable until he continued. "I am not sure I agree with them. You are going to have to show me something if you expect to last around here."

I felt like I had been hit in the stomach. Had I done something wrong to give him such a negative impression of me? I tried to think of something to say but could come up with nothing.

"That's all. You can go now," he said.

I felt so bad as I left his office I wanted to quit. I was walking through the open bay area outside Mike's office when a young man approached me. He looked to be just a couple of years older than me. He was about my size, six feet tall and around 170 pounds.

He had sandy blond hair and blue eyes. His look was friendly and non-threatening which was exactly what I needed at that moment.

"You must be David Beckman," he said. "I'm Jeff Henning."

Jeff shook my hand. "You're going to be riding with me this week. Come on. Let's get out of here."

I followed Jeff down to his car without saying a word. I was beginning to think that I had made a huge mistake coming to work at BDS. We got in Jeff's car and he pulled out of the parking lot and drove about three blocks and pulled into a coffee shop.

"I think you need a cup," Jeff said. "I know I do."

Jeff ordered two coffees and handed me one and then I followed him over to a table. When I sat down I realized that I hadn't spoken a word since I left Mr. Boswell's office.

"Thanks for the coffee," I managed to say.

"I could tell you needed it," Jeff said. "I had hoped to talk to you before you met with Mike. I guess the meeting didn't go as you expected, did it?"

"No. I must have done something wrong because he apparently doesn't think a whole lot of me," I said.

Jeff laughed, which pissed me off a little. I didn't see anything funny about what I had been through.

"Let me guess," Jeff said. "Mike told you something to the effect that he didn't think you were qualified to work for his precious company, right?"

"Something like that," I said.

"That's vintage Mike. He likes to put the fear of God into new employees," Jeff said. "As a mater of fact, he likes to do that to all of his employees."

"He's always like that?" I asked.

"Well, not always but a lot of the time. Don't expect him to pat you on the back and tell you how good you are doing," Jeff said. "He leaves the back patting and praising to Marty. Mike's management style is to intimidate his employees into producing the results he wants."

"Do a lot of people quit after they meet Mike the first time?" I asked.

"Occasionally, but that's what he wants. Mike doesn't want anyone that can be scared off easily," Jeff said. "All you have to do in this company to survive is do your job and ignore whatever Mike says. You will find that everyone else in this company is easy to get along with and in spite of Mike's bark he is very generous in his financial rewards when you do a good job. Just don't expect him to tell you that you did good."

I felt a lot better after that conversation and by the end of that first week Jeff and I had become good friends. He had even invited me to his house to meet his wife, Nancy, and to have dinner. Nancy was an attractive girl with blond hair, blue eyes and what appeared to be a basketball hidden under her dress.

"When are you due?" I asked.

"End of September," Nancy said.

Looking at the two of them, I couldn't help but think that they would have a beautiful child and I told them so.

By the time we had finished dinner, Nancy was already trying to set me up with her single friends. While I didn't want her to set me up with dates, it did make me feel good that Nancy thought I was worthy of her friends. My reluctance didn't deter Nancy at all.

*****

The following week was kind of scary because I was given my own sales territory, which was geographically located South and East of Atlanta. I spent the first two days calling existing BDS customers in my territory and setting up appointments to visit them so that I could introduce myself.

Once I got out into the field, I found that I really liked the job. I quickly found a sales technique that worked for me. Rather than telling my customers what products and services I had for sale, I found that if I let the customer tell me what he needed from his network and then worked with him to design a solution I was able to establish a good rapport with them and close a lot of business.

For the next six months, I took the advice that Jeff had given me and worked hard and ignored anything Mike said to me, which was easy to do because I was seldom in the office and when I was Mike seldom spoke to me. Two weeks before the end of my first six months, I made a cold call on Clinton Products in Macon, Georgia. They had a large facility in Macon but were not currently a customer of BDS. I met with their Chief Information Officer (CIO) George Harris. Mr. Harris explained to me that Clinton Products had contracts with two different providers for their computer hardware, software and services. He said that they liked to use more than one supplier to insure that they were getting the most competitive prices and the highest quality of service. They felt that the competition between the vendors would make them perform better. Then Mr. Harris winked at me.

"I think that's bullshit myself," he said. "I think we would be much better off using a single vendor but the CEO wants to do it this way."

I spent most of the afternoon with Mr. Harris and before I left he agreed to add BDS to his list of vendors and I managed to win a third of their business. This was only worth about $100,000 a year but it got our foot in the door. I was pretty proud of myself for pulling that off.

As a new employee, I was due for a six-month review in January. Marty and I went over my results for the first six months. I achieved 130% of my quota during that period and Marty was very pleased. After I finished talking to Marty, he told me that Mike wanted to see me so I headed over to Mike's office. I wasn't expecting much from him but I figured my performance deserved at least a thank you from Mike.

When I walked into his office, Mike was sitting at his desk. He didn't offer me a seat and he didn't even look up at me as he began to speak to me.

"I guess you think you're hot shit now because you made 130% of your quota," he grumbled. "Christ, with that low quota Marty gave you and the cherry territory assigned to you, I would have expected you to do at least 150% of quota."

I was pissed but considering that it was Mike saying it I just let it go.

"I see you brought in a contract for Clinton Products."

"Yes. It's just a foot in the door for now. I hope to gain more of their business over time," I said.

"They are eighty miles from the office. Who the hell is supposed to drive out there to service the account?" Mike said.

I knew that we had a service tech that lived fifteen miles outside of Macon but I let Mike rant on.

"I also see that you gave them two points more than our usual discount."

"I saw it as an opportunity to win a new customer and I wanted to get my foot in the door. I just felt that since they would be my customer, I would do what it took to win them. I'll make up those two points in ongoing business."

"What the fuck do you mean by your customer?" Mike growled. "Is your fucking name on the outside of this building? They are my customers and if you can't understand that then perhaps you don't belong in this company."

I knew that Mike was just baiting me but I was too angry to let this go. I had often thought of a speech that I would make to Mike if he ever pushed me too far and he had just done that.

"Well, okay then," I said as I turned to leave his office. I was sure he wasn't about to let me leave until he was ready to tell me to leave.

"Where the hell do you think you are going? I didn't tell you to leave yet."

"I am going down to personnel and tell them to cut my severance check and then I will pack up my personal effects from my desk and I'll be out of here within the hour."

"I haven't fired you yet."

"I decided not to wait until you fire me," I said. "I can't work for a man who doesn't appreciate my efforts. Especially when I know I can walk out that door, make a few phone calls and have another job before the end of the week, probably working for one of your competitors."

Mike's eyes got real big and his face turned red and he seemed to have trouble thinking of anything to say so I turned toward the door again.

"Wait. Maybe I came on a little strong there," Mike said. "You actually did a reasonably good job. I just want you to know that you can't slack off just because you had some early success."

Mike stared at me waiting for me to say something so I decide to push him a little.

"So are you saying that you don't want me to quit?" I asked.

I could see that this was very hard for him. "No. I don't want you to quit but if you threaten to take a job with a competitor again I will let you go. Now get out of here."

I was pretty pleased with my self. That was the closest that Mike had come to apologizing to anyone that I had ever heard. I made him back down.

After that I got along a lot better with Mike. He never praised me but he didn't criticize either.

*****

On January 17, two weeks after my victory over Mike I was at Jeff's house for his birthday party. Jeff and I were laughing about my meeting with Mike when Nancy interrupted us so that she could introduce me to one of her friends. I had become used to this being a regular occurrence as Nancy had introduced me to at least seven of her single friends over the last six months.

"Mind if I interrupt?" Nancy asked.

"You are never an interruption," Jeff said.

Nancy smiled at Jeff and kissed him on the cheek. I always like being around Jeff and Nancy because their love for each other was so obvious.

"David, I just wanted to introduce you to my friend Erica Patterson. Erica, this is David Beckman."

I had noticed Erica earlier in the evening and felt that there was something familiar about her but couldn't figure out what it was. Erica was five feet seven inches tall and had long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes and a lithe dancer's body and I felt myself drawn to her the first time I saw her talking to Nancy. I was hoping that she was the girl that Nancy intended to introduce me to that evening.

As I held her hand and told her it was nice to meet her, Nancy said, "You guys have something in common."

"What's that?" I asked.

"You both live in the same apartment complex."

"I knew you looked familiar. How do you two know each other?"

"I work with Nancy at Dean Healthcare," Erica said.

Nancy took Jeff by the arm and led him over to talk to some of their other guests. Erica and I spent the rest of the evening together. Before the party ended I asked her if she would have dinner with me the next night and she said yes.

*****

After dinner, we went back to the apartment complex and decided to take a walk along the river. During our walk, we exchanged histories. I learned that Erica was from Courtland, New York and had graduated from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton just two months before coming to Georgia. She had come to Atlanta because she had been offered a job at Dean Healthcare, a large healthcare insurance company in Marietta. We had a very pleasant evening but when we got back to her apartment she didn't invite me in. I must admit to a little disappointment although I had no reason to expect to be invited in.

"I had a wonderful time tonight, David," Erica said and then she kissed me. There was something in the kiss that told me that I would be seeing a lot more of Erica and I was right.

Over the next two weeks Erica and I went out together seven times.