“Kendrick said I should come see you,” I finally say.
He nods. “He wanted me to talk to you,” he says. “About your future. And the future of Keating Technologies.”
I nod my head and grin. So, Kendrick's plan is employ a two-pronged attack. He squeezes me from one side and has Thomas squeeze me from the other. Clever. Very clever.
“If you're going to give me the same pep-talk Kendrick gave –”
“I'm not, actually,” he says with a smile. “I like to think I'm a little more original than that.”
“Okay,” I say and sigh. “Let's hear your sales pitch, hoss.”
He chuckles. “It's not really a sales pitch,” he says. “I actually want to show you something.”
“Oh? And what's that?”
Thomas stands up and motions toward the door. “Come with me and see.”
I give him a grin and stand up, following him toward the door. Over the next two hours, Thomas walked me through all of the different departments housed in the Keating Tech building. He showed me everything from the R&D department to accounting. He introduced me to countless people – most every single one of them passionate about their job. And he also showed me some of KT's current projects – some really amazing innovations he hopes to bring to the marketplace soon.
When the tour was over, we grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria and I heard more stories from more people about how much they love working at KT and how good the company is to them. Nobody knew me from a hole in the ground and I like to think that I've got a pretty good bullshit detector and I can sniff out a brown-nosing, ass-kisser a mile off. But that detector didn't go off once all day. It was really – something.
Eventually, we make it back to Thomas' office and it's getting late in the afternoon. He has his personal assistant bring in a couple bottles of cold beer for us, giving him a warm smile as she sets them down on the desk.
“Can I get you anything else, Mr. Newhouse?”
He shakes his head. “No, Lisa, thank you,” he says. “You can knock off for the day if you'd like.”
“Are you sure?”
He nods. “Of course. Go spend time with your boy.”
“Thank you, Mr. Newhouse.”
She gives him a grateful smile and nods to me as she departs, leaving us alone with our beers. I pick up the bottle and laugh.
“Still drinking the fancy imports, huh?” I ask.
“It's the one indulgence I allow myself,” he laughs. “Kendrick may be okay drinking the domestic swill, but I never will be.”
“He calls you a little hoity-toity because of this, you know,” I say, holding the bottle up.
He shrugs. “What else would an unrefined, uncultured cretin say?”
We share a laugh and take a long sip of our beer. It's a brand I haven't had before and I have to admit, it's pretty tasty. I'm not usually prone to drinking beer – I'm more of a bourbon man, myself – but when I do, I usually drink the domestic swill, as Thomas calls it. But after tasting this, I might have to re-think that.
“Good, isn't it?” Thomas asks.
I nod. “Maybe the Europeans do know a little something about brewing beer.”
“I've been trying to tell you,” he says. “Kendrick is a lost cause, but I've got hope for you still, son.”
“You may have made me a convert,” I say. “Just don't tell Kendrick.”
He laughs and takes another drink of his beer before looking at me. “Do you know why I had you tour the building with me today?”
I give him a grin. “You thought I needed the exercise?”
He chuckles. “Hardly. I think you do well enough on that count on your own,” he says. “No, I wanted you to see, firsthand, the impact this company has in the lives of its people. I can tell you from my own experience that working for this company – for your father – changed my life. Bettered my life. And you heard a lot of other similar stories today.”
I nod. I did hear a lot of similar stories. I didn't realize just how many others shared Thomas' story. Or something very much like it.
“I wanted you to see that,” he says. “Because I think you need to understand just how important this company is to people. What a difference it's making in their lives – and in the world.”
I nod again, understanding the point he's driving at – or at least, thinking I do. “How many people does KT employ?”
“Here? There are a little more than eight thousand employees in this building alone,” he says. “But we have so many more. There are research facilities, subsidiary companies – even warehouses and general office spaces. In San Antonio alone, we employ many thousands more. And all told, KT employs more than fifty thousand people nationwide.”
I sit back in my seat and whistle low. “I didn't know that.”
He nods. “If you let your sister –”
“Half-sister.”
“Half-sister, then,” he says. “If you let her gain control of this company, she's going to break it up, sell it off, and all of those people will then be out of work. Basically, half of San Antonio is going to be unemployed.”
Thomas' presentation hits me in the gut in a way that Kendrick's hadn't. Apparently, his two-pronged attack is having the effect he wanted it to have. Looking into the faces of the people KT employs, speaking with them, hearing their stories – it made that connection to this company real for me. It made it tangible.
Which is exactly what these two were hoping to achieve – Kendrick lays out the bare facts and Thomas makes it real for me.
“You know, you and Kendrick are like a couple of scheming old women,” I say, chuckling wryly.
He shrugs. “We can be,” he says. “We just wanted to underscore what is on the line if you don't meet the obligations of your parent's estate. We thought it was important you see what's at stake.”
“Well, now that I understand it,” I say. “It still doesn't change the underlying problem.”
“And what is that underlying problem?”
“For one thing, understanding everything KT does,” I say. “I'm not a genius like you, Thomas. I'm not an engineer. Hell, I can barely do math.”
He chuckles. “I'm hardly a genius, son,” he says. “I'm just somebody who works hard and doesn't give up.”
“That's crap and we both know it, Thomas,” I say.
He leans back in his seat and takes another drink of his beer. “You do realize that your parents never expected you to master every nuance of what we do here, right?” he asks. “Nobody can. There are projects going on in this building that I don't understand. Not the first thing about them.”
“Then why would one of their conditions be that I understand the workings of KT when I assume control?”
Thomas looks at me for a long moment. “One of the biggest frustrations your father had with you was that you always took everything on yourself,” he says. “You're a stubborn kid, Brady. You have a real hard time asking for help.”
My laugh is wry. “I suppose the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree in that regard.”
Thomas smiles. “Indeed,” he says. “But I will give your father all the credit in the world. He learned to ask for help. If he didn't understand something, he learned to be comfortable asking somebody to help him understand it.”
“My father?” I ask. “Actually asked for – help?”
“He did,” he replies. “Believe me, it's a hard lesson to learn – how to humble yourself enough to admit that you don't know everything. It's not easy admitting that you aren't the smartest guy in the room and that you need help understanding something.”