He nodded. “Yeah, I was hoping for a money tree to sprout from the ground and solve all my problems, but . . .”
“Ha. Well, you’re not the only one with money on your mind!” she said.
Preena told him that she was learning to make and sell handcrafted jewelry and had already earned a few thousand dollars since starting. Before last week, Jake would have thought this was mildly interesting. Now, it suddenly sounded a lot more relevant. He didn’t know much about jewelry, but a few thousand dollars was real money. Maybe there was something he could learn.
“That’s awesome,” he said. “How did you learn to do it?”
“I started going to a group that meets every week to talk through different strategies and projects. It’s called the Third Way.”
“It sounds like a cult,” Jake said, ever the skeptic.
Preena rolled her eyes. “It’s legit. And here’s the thing. Ever since I went to Bali for my yoga retreat last year, I’ve been wanting to go back. Next time, I’d love to be able to take more of an extended leave and spend a whole month there. I guess we’ll need to see how this assessment thing turns out, but if I still have a job I’d like to ask for an unpaid sabbatical. The only problem with an unpaid sabbatical,” she continued, “is that whole ‘unpaid’ part. So I figured I needed to make some money that I wasn’t already budgeting elsewhere. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized I should probably be doing that anyway. These days, it’s not smart to rely on a single company for your entire income.”
“That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about,” said Jake. “I thought about signing up for one of those ride-sharing programs, but when I did the math I realized I wouldn’t make much more than minimum wage. They promise that you’ll be an ‘owner,’ but they’re the ones collecting most of the money while all the drivers are out hustling.”
“Right,” said Preena. “So that’s what brought me to the Third Way, the group I’ve been going to. It’s a bunch of people who are all trying to make money on the side, but not in a way where they’re just getting part-time jobs working for someone else.”
“Okay, fair enough. It’s not a cult. So it’s like . . . an incubator for startups?”
“Not exactly. More like a place where regular people can learn together. Everyone there is trying to get something going for themselves, without quitting their day jobs.”
“Huh,” he said. “I’ve never really thought of myself as an entrepreneur, but I like that approach. How much does it cost?”
Preena laughed. “I was skeptical, too! But not only is it free, they also have a guiding value: the less you spend on your project, the better. It’s a way of adding a challenge while also making sure that you don’t waste money while you’re learning. Most people end up spending less than $500.”
“And you can start a business with that?”
“Sometimes even less. Why don’t you come and check it out? I think you’d like the founder.”
“Sure, okay,” Jake said. “I definitely need to do something. And if this group happens to have a spare apartment in the back of the meeting space, I wouldn’t object.”
* * *
—
Jake wasn’t sure he’d find the answers he needed in a group, but he promised himself he’d approach it with an open mind. It couldn’t hurt. But first things first: in an effort to redeem himself for his morning tardiness—not to mention Friday’s screwup—he worked through lunch typing up the notes with his ideas for Avery Tech.
He took the printout to Jan, who was talking on the phone but waved him in. When she finished, he handed her a six-page report.
“This is a freebie,” he told her. “It’s up to you whether you want to bill Avery for it or not, but I worked on it over the weekend and just now during the lunch break, so it won’t cost the company any of my time.”
The report was titled “How Avery Tech Can Sell More and Keep Customers Longer.” Jan leafed through it and was impressed. It featured a list of eight detailed suggestions Jake had compiled, based on comparisons with its competitors and the results of a customer survey the company had conducted. Properly implemented, it looked like any one of the suggestions could give Avery a real boost.
“Jake, this is great,” she said, underlining a couple of sentences as she turned the pages. “You just whipped this up?”
“Well, it’s part of what I was thinking about last week but didn’t explain very well. After the meeting, I put more time into it to make sure it had a chance to see the light of day.”
She nodded. “I’ll do what I can to make sure they look at it. But remember that the new assessment tool won’t measure anything creative like this. What matters is billable hours and new accounts. There’s also a 360 review system where we ask some of your peers to provide constructive feedback.”
Perfect. Can’t wait for Sloan’s “constructive” feedback.
“Jake, don’t get me wrong,” she went on. “I like you, and I hope you’ll be able to stick around. But you need to understand that this is a model where managers have only limited input. There’s a real chance some people will be out of a job, and soon. I want you to be prepared for that reality.”
He left Jan’s office feeling like a tennis player who had come from behind and battled to a fifth set, only to lose the championship in a tie breaker. He’d done everything he could in preparing that report, and now it looked like it wouldn’t matter.
Back at his desk, he had another message from Roland, the property manager. There had been a surge of interest in his apartment, and they’d scheduled viewings for four of the next five days. “We don’t want this to be an inconvenience to you,” Roland said. “But if you could manage to stay out of the unit until 9:00 p.m. each day, the family would appreciate it. Also, please make sure everything is nice and tidy before you leave in the mornings. There will be a lot of people coming in and out.”
Jake made a mental note to put his entire life on hold until he found a new place to live. Then, by habit, he checked his bank account to see if his paycheck had been deposited yet. No luck. He was still sitting on less than $2,500 to his name, or negative $50,000 if you factored in those loans that were coming due.
It was clear that something had to change, and soon.
6.
This meeting is called to order. Our first item of business is . . . Indonesian Sumatra Gold!”
Clarence, the group’s leader, passed out small cups of strong dark coffee. Most of the eight people in the room took one, with the first cup being passed to Jake.