After about an hour of silence and a couple more drinks he looked over and held up his left forefinger. “Tell me the one trait that you look hardest for.”

            “In what?” I asked looking up from my pad.

            “In one of your ‘corporate warriors’. What’s at the core? When I invest in companies I look for a lot of things but focus on the real cash flows. What do you look for?”

            This had become so intuitive for me I had to think about how to put it. He stepped in, “Ok, start with the lowest common denominator.”

            “Well that’s simple. Expertise.”

            “That’s too simplistic.”

            “But the client needs it,” I said. “How else does the employee pay his way?”

            “To do what?”

            “Drive value to the business owner,” I answered.

            “You think all it takes is expertise? That’s nothing. Every executive has that, otherwise they shouldn’t even have the job.”

            “But it happens.”

            “Of course. And when no one does something about it companies wither. What else?”

            “Relevant experience.”
            He rolled his eyes. “Obviously. What else?”

            “Ok. Demonstrated loyalty.”

            He smiled. “I somehow knew that would be on your list.”

            “Why?”
            “You have a sort of platoon mentality. So loyalty would be important to you. But let
me ask you this, loyalty to whom? The idea? The team? The boss?…Themselves?”

            Suddenly I needed something really stiff to drink. I was outgunned and I knew it. He knew it too. He was my Professor Kingsfield all over again. I didn’t know whether to fold and go back to work on my speech or to maneuver. I paused then came back with: “All those but mostly to the shareholders.”

            Wherever he was driving this caused a bend in his road. “The shareholders?”

            “If the employee takes a paycheck, of course. That’s who they work for. Everything has to point to the owners’ enrichment.”

            “But what do the shareholders know?”

            “Who cares. That’s not the point,” I answered flatly.

            “What about honor?”

            “Well it’s always better to behave so you don’t have to apologize.”

            “Apologize?” he asked.

            “It’s part of any job, especially a senior one, to have to make tough choices. Honor dictates you make them for the right reasons. I think it’s part of loyalty.”

            “Don’t you find that these days loyalty has become too portable?”

            “Perhaps. But as long as somebody is taking a paycheck they have to earn it. And a good warrior will persevere until the moment they move on. That too is part of honor, at least as I see it.”

            “Interesting. But you still haven’t told me what’s in the center of this loyal, honorable expert warrior with useful experience. These are just ornaments on the tree. What’s the trunk made of?”

            “Simple. They have to be driven to win.”

            He thought about this for several seconds then smiled and reached into his coat. He pulled out a business card and reached over, setting it on my pad. “I guess that just about says it.”

            I examined the engraved card then looked over at him. “Thank you. Now, tell me about your son.”

-Tal Newhart

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