A day in the forest is exactly what Taylor Leeds needed. Running a billion-dollar tech firm was taking its toll. With Quantum Radiant International now dancing at the feet of Wall Street, pressures and stresses were mounting. A day of quiet and solitude was what he needed.
When Quantum Radiant launched only 28 months ago, very few thought it would last the first year. But Taylor hired a solid team of engineers, marketers, and management to point it in the right direction for success. When QRI announced its IPO, the company was insanely successful, and overnight crossed into the billion-dollar territory.
Investors were pleased.
The new stock options pleased company personnel.
But the CEO was miserable because he was working long hours with little chance to enjoy the newfound freedom his success had achieved.
Taylor sat by the mini-waterfall and watched as the water cascaded to the bottom again and again. Leeds had been there for an hour just staring at the waterfall, gently rocking back and forth.
“Mr. Leeds?” a man said.
“Who could this be?” Leeds thought. “Nobody knows I’m here. No doubt an employee.”
Taylor rose from the tree stump that was his seat and turned to see who it was. He didn’t recognize the balding man, but with 900 employees in his company, he wasn’t surprised he didn’t know them all. His smile was as mechanical as the words that had come out of his mouth so many times over the past 28 months, “Thank you for all that you do for the company.”
The man squinted, puzzled at the words, and handed Leeds an envelope.
“Mr. Leeds, you have been served,” the man said and walked away.
Leeds didn’t bother to open the envelope. A lawsuit no doubt from a competitor or an unhappy customer. He wasn’t married so it couldn’t have been that. He placed it into his inner jacket pocket. He watched the process server walk away and he turned back to the waterfall, and plopped onto the stump.
With his elbows on his knees, Leeds looked at the ground between his intertwined fingers with outstretched arms. This time on the stump, though, he had tears streaming down his cheeks, the first time in ages he had a cry. He’d weather this new legal storm as he had done in the past, and would do in the future, but it didn’t make the journey easier.
And one of these days he might even forget the words his old man said before he left a young mother to raise three small children: “You’ll never amount to anything, Boy.”