The beach was filled with happy people enjoying the warm sun, the soft breeze, and the tranquil blue waters of the Mediterranean, but thankfully Dorothy Powers had managed to shut all that out so that she could get some serious work done. She was tapping away at her PDA with a stylus, trying to massage the third-quarter projections and wishing to hell and back that she could log onto the database at work to get up-to-the-minute numbers, when she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.
"Dorothy?" She looked up to see a somewhat familiar face--not a friend, because she was a business rival and business rivals didn't make good friends, but at the very least a business rival Dorothy respected. Sharon Devereaux, former CFO of TransGlobal United, stepped down a month ago to concentrate on 'health and personal well-being.' Now she was standing on the beach, wearing a skimpy bikini and sporting a perfect full-body tan. "Dorothy Powers?"
Dorothy lowered her PDA for a moment. Sharon might be out of work at the moment, but a business mind like hers wouldn't stay that way for long, and it never hurt to network when the opportunity came up. "Sharon," she said, favoring her with a smile. "So this is where you wound up. I have to say, you've made the most of retirement."
Sharon gave a bubbly little giggle. "I should have done it ages ago," she said. "Between you and me, I'd almost forgotten what fun felt like." She plopped herself down on the sand next to Dorothy. "So how about you? Relaxing, taking in the fun and sun?"
Dorothy rolled her eyes. "Getting bored out of my mind, more like it. I tried telling them that I didn't need a vacation, but they rolled out an armload of corporate shrinks, full of spreadsheets on 'improved productivity' and 'healthy work-life balance'. So I got a mandatory three weeks off. Oh, don't get me wrong," she said, waving her arm airily about at the other beach-goers, "I'm sure that the average person benefits from a chance to get away. But people like you and I? We thrive on the pressure. That's what makes us great."
Sharon gave her a sorrowful gaze, filled with a sort of smug pity that made Dorothy want to shove her stylus through Sharon's eye. "I used to think like that," she said. "I was just like you, Dorothy, all work all the time. I even had a cot in my office so I wouldn't have to go home! But then I found something that really changed my life. I've stepped away from my job, and I've never been happier."
Dorothy set her PDA down. "Wait--you mean to tell me that you really did voluntarily step down from TransGlobal? I mean, I know that's what the press release said, but come on. If all you ever did was read the papers, you'd think nobody ever got fired from a top job."
Sharon leaned back, letting her body soak in the sun. "Oh, no. You can believe me, I quit all on my own. The job was boring, it was hard, and I wanted to have fun. So I am."
"It was eleven million a year! You don't walk away from eleven million a year, Sharon! TransGlobal's last three CEOs served time as CFOs. That job is like being handed the company on a silver platter, and you walked away because it was 'hard'?"
Sharon sighed. "I can see you're not going to get it until I show you. Come on up to my room. It'll only take about a half-hour. I'll show you the DVD that changed my life."
*****
Dorothy sat on the bed. "This DVD had better be pretty spectacular, Sharon," she said as Sharon popped a disc into the player.
"Oh, hush," Sharon said, a little bit of a giggle in her voice. "You weren't having any fun on the beach, so why not sit in here and mope instead? Besides, you'll love it. It'll blow your mind." She hit 'play', and stepped out of the way of the TV set.
The screen flickered for a few moments, then with a splash of cheesy 80s video effects, a logo appeared. 'Dare...' it said, for a moment, then with a swooshing noise, three more words joined it. '...To Be Stupid!'
Dorothy's jaw dropped. "What." she said, flatly and with low menace.
Low-fidelity, upbeat synthesizer music played in the background as the logo faded into an office. A balding, mustached man in his mid-40s with coke-bottle glasses sat behind a desk, wearing a lab coat over a cheap suit. "Hi," he said. "I'm Doctor Myron Wernstrom, of the National Institute For Stress Reduction, and I'm here to talk to you today about my revolutionary new therapy for overstressed executives." The picture and sound quality practically made Dorothy cringe. The whole thing looked like it had been shot on video for about forty bucks, the colors kept frizzing out into distortion and back to normal, and there was an annoying hum in the background of the whole thing that sounded like someone had left the air-conditioning on while taping.
She stood up. "You have got to be kidding me," she said, heading for the door.
Sharon paused the DVD. "Just hang on a few minutes, Dorothy," she said, almost plaintively. "It gets better, I promise." Dorothy stopped, knowing she was going to regret this. "Just listen to him for a few minutes. Hear him out. Doctor Wernstrom changed my life." With an irritated sigh, Dorothy sat back down on the bed.
The DVD unpaused. "Everyone knows about the good things that success at work can buy you. A nice house, a fast car, vacations, travel...but the higher you climb up on the ladder of success, the less those rewards mean. How much money do you need to be happy? How much money can you spend in a day? How much money do you make in a day? Face it--after a while, working hard is just something you do to fill a void in your life."
"Bullshit," Dorothy muttered under her breath. Her fingers clenched angrily at the bedspread.
"Let's take a look at a typical female executive," Doctor Wernstrom said. With a swoosh, a new frame of the video slid into view, revealing a dark-haired woman in severe make-up, with a sober business dress on--it didn't look too dissimilar to Dorothy herself. She strode into her office in tense, jerky strides.