Page 6 of Yours, For Good

It would have been easy for my niece to get an invitation. At the end of the day, this incubator was closed off and those involved liked to think of it as an exclusive situation for people with the right connections— and Julia had those to spare. The founders of the group prided themselves on being one of the oldest, most powerful billionaire-created and billionaire-seeded networks in the world. In reality, it rarely did more than stroke everyone's ego, and move a few million dollars into another rich person's pockets.

The exclusivity made me rage. When I was a kid and had the chance to spend time with my grandmother, she instilled in me so much of the wisdom she had gained through her life. A big part of it had been her encouragement and outright dare, that I could grow up and change things.

It was why she had left me all her money and made me the richest of all the Pendletons— she believed I could rewrite the narrative. That I would take her teachings and do what she never could.

Creating the incubator sponsorship was part of that plan. As someone with no other job aside from being a philanthropist, I didn't have the corporate connections to properly support a young person's dreams. I didn't have the business acumen to mentor them, either. By providing an invitation to the incubator, I got to connect bright people who lacked networks and financial resources, with one of the best organizations to offer startup development and access to funding in the Global North.

The risk was in who I chose to sponsor. All incubator founders, mentors, and investors; dammit, often the participants themselves, they were elitist as fuck. Their superiority complex was written into their policies. No one could receive an invitation unless sponsored by folk who got pre-cleared by the directors and their team; when I got in, I had to prove just how deep my pockets were. That was never the problem; I had more money than most of them. Still, I was sure I wouldn't have made it in if not for my super billionaire status, my last name, and the many businesses I was linked to via family and friends. In their prejudice, they expected me to reach deep into my networks to bring in the right people to the incubator.

They did not count on my belief that the right people could be chosen by virtue of their dreams and drive to achieve them, rather than the name they'd been born into. I worried what the group might do, were they to learn I secretly sponsored underserved, disenfranchised people. While I always instructed John Grier students to keep their background vague, I didn't want them kicked out for a bogus reason, or to find they wouldn't be financed because of investors' prejudice.

Having Julia join the incubator complicated things somewhat. In the slight chance that, despite my best efforts, Nora learned I was behind the sponsorship, she could accidentally mention it to Julia. Then, if my niece— perhaps not so accidentally— whispered it into the wrong ears, I could get kicked out, too. If that happened, I wouldn't get to offer this opportunity to anyone else. Future John Grier students and others like them would miss out on the exclusive invitation I could provide.

I didn't want my setup disrupted. My program had to go on, so students whose only barrier was not having the right connections could get the help they deserved, and so we together rebelled against the ultimate goal of the incubator. All I had to do was pay closer attention to it this year.

As for Nora… she could amplify the benefits from the program and take them far, despite Julia. Her ambitious business plan could go on to thrive. The pieces were already in motion. All I had to do was bear witness; read her emails, see the world through her eyes, and honor her journey.

When I wrote in my journal that night, most of it had to do with trying to process my motivations and goals for the near future. Without noticing, Nora's name was penned to paper more than once.

Chapter 4

Date: July 30

To: Mr. Smith

From: Eleanora

Subject: On social skills

Dear Mr. Beanpole,

This week has been tough. While completing my MA I felt on par with my classmates, but in this program I feel years behind. Like a second grader hearing high school seniors discussing calculus.

I'm still following the plan I attached to my last email, in terms of meeting the program's benchmarks. I'm assuming you approve of it, as you didn't reply. One thing I've had to negotiate with myself, though, is not to work past 6pm. Treat it like a full time job, if you will. My tendency would be to work every waking hour; at JGH, when I wasn't working on my degree, I was

cleaning or whatever I was scheduled to do. I had to come to San Francisco to learn that I don't know how to relax! Sally McBride was telling me that part of what makes this program so good is that it allows us to have a social life. The idea is that we need to practice those skills to network properly, and that every social activity is a networking opportunity.

I've been thrown into a world that expects me to have a million lived experiences that escaped me. That banks on me knowing how to have casual conversations that include my last trip to places like Costa Rica.

Why is this the first time I'm allowed to have social time?

Also, how do I have social time?

I'm meeting Sally for dinner tomorrow, and then we're going to a bar. She said we should practice flirting, just in case we need the skills for the program. I'll make you a bet right now: she already knows how to flirt, and she just feels like doing that. Her reasoning is an excuse. Regardless, I'll go with her, and try my hand at it in this different context. It IS good practice for me in my new world, isn't it?

(maybe I shouldn't be including this level of detail in my letters or talk about flirting, but it is part of networking... and of course you never said you wanted these letters to be professional messages, and you never answer back, so I don't know how much detail is too little or too much to report…)

Wish me luck! Meanwhile, I'll continue to watch videos online about how to break out of a social glacier, and go on "virtual walks" to different places in the world.

Thank you, virtual maps of the world.

Nora

Date: August 9

To: Mr. Smith

From: Eleanora