Cash Is King

CHAPTER 10Nonmanufacturing Examples

“Alright, ladies, it's time to move north from Texas. How about the next few rounds we play Omaha Hold ‘em?” Carol loved these nights playing cards with four of her closest friends. They met in college or shortly after and each woman has pursued careers with great passion.

Makayla and Carol met freshman year. Both had very odd roommates and they quickly bonded in the dorm study lounge telling each other one story after another. They would laugh until late in the night. Carol was an accounting major and Makayla was following in the footsteps of her mother for a career in medicine.

“I'm going to need to see your cash up front, Carol. Big‐wig corporate finance types just love to take advantage of simple country doctors like me!” The women laughed at what had become a running joke. Each was very successful in her chosen career, and each tried to outdo the others playing it down. Makayla was not a country doctor. She was chief of surgery at St. Luke’s Hospital.

This was a power gathering. In years past the women met more frequently; now it was once a quarter. Cards, pizza, martinis, and camaraderie with other successful women who understand the pressures and responsibilities that come when people describe you as a first … such as the first woman chief of surgery or the first managing partner of the largest law firm in the state. They understood the milestones they had achieved and had done so because many others before them made it possible, but ...