The Art of the Hustle (Complete)

Chapter Fifty-Five

The New Year had arrived, marking another successful year. This year, I flew the entire company, over fifty employees, down to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I did not have the extra cash to pay for the trip so I put it all on my Amex. It was important to me that I treat my staff well, despite the lack of funding to do so. They had all worked incredibly hard for me and I wanted to express my gratitude. I had faith business would boom and I would eventually pay back all of my debts. 

Upon our return, we all felt rested and ready to go. It was nice coming back to work. The new offices were definitely an upgrade. Thanks to my good friend Allan, I was able to negotiate a good deal and relocate our operations to the Lindberg Building.  

"Good morning, Trevor."  

"Good morning, Tami. Did you enjoy your time in Mexico?"  

"Yes, it was a lot of fun having everyone down there, thank you so much." 

"It was my pleasure. Give me some ideas on where we can all go next year." 

I walked into my office and did my usual morning routine. I checked the stock market, replied to some emails, and read the news. 

"Trevor," George said, as he barged into my office holding a copy of the day's newspaper. "Did you read the article about National Group Bank announcing they are discontinuing their partnership with us?"  

"Yes, I read that," I replied calmly. 

"And...?"  

"And, I don't care." 

"What do you mean you don't care? This is bad, Trevor." 

"You're right, it's bad for National Group Bank. I'm not the least bit worried about us." 

"Aren't you concerned other companies will start to pull out, and then our card will become useless." 

"That's backwards thinking, George. National pulled out because they make bad business decisions, you know that. I believe in our product and I think our clients do too. If anything, it will just get people to cancel with National Group and switch to another bank." 

"Do you want to issue a statement to the paper?" 

"No, I think that would be a mistake at this time." 

"Why's that?" 

"Because George, we're leaders, pioneers, the forgers of new territory. As such, we don't pay attention to what others are doing. They are behind us - they watch us, we don't watch them. We take action, rather than whimsically react to every little thing others are doing." 

"So what's our next course of action, what new territory are we forging?"  

"Let me answer that question with a question." 

"Alright." 

"Do you believe in signs?" 

"Do I believe in signs?" he repeated. "What do you mean?" 

"I think the universe is trying to tell us something, George." 

"What's it saying?" 

"It's saying we should put National Group out of business." 

"Put National Group out of business? They're one of the biggest companies in the world." 

"Not for long they're not." 

"Okay, so how do you suggest we put National out of business?" 

"It's a multiple step process. Hold on a sec, George," I said as I saw Tami at my door.