Okay, she said. That's an honest answer. Come around the side. Ethan slid out from under the truck on a creeper with grease to his elbows and did not get up. Ms.
Donovan. Mr. Carter. You drove 2 hours to ask me something I'm going to say no to. I did.
Then ask it standing up so you can leave fast. Claire almost smiled. I want you to run the fund. No. $400 million independent office.
You report to the board and the board can't fire you without a supermajority and a public filing explaining why. No. You'd have subpoena authority through our federal counterparty agreements on any Aurelia site in the country. Ms. Donovan, you'd have the ability to stop a job.
Claire took one step closer. Any job. Any site. 22, 000 people work for this company, Mr. Carter, and right now not one of them has anybody to call.
Ethan wiped his hands on a rag for a long time. Why me? Because you're the only person I've met in 9 years who said no to $11 million. That's a bad reason. It's the only reason that's ever mattered, Claire said.
Anybody can read a report. I need somebody who can't be bought and I have exactly one confirmed sample. Ethan sat on the creeper with the rag in his hands. Ms. Donovan, then can I tell you what I'm actually afraid of?
Please. I've seen this before. Not this exact thing, but I've seen a company put the loud guy in an office with a title and a budget and I've seen what happens to him in about 4 years. Ethan looked up at her. He gets a good parking spot.
He gets invited to the leadership offsite. He starts hearing the word we. And then one day somebody hands him a memo with four findings on it and he's busy and he signs it because he's inside the door now. Claire Donovan stood in that driveway and did not have an answer for a long moment. Then she said, That's exactly what happened to me.
I know it is. I'm not trying to be cruel. You're not being cruel. You're being accurate and it's worse. She set her bag down on the hood.
So build it so that can't happen. Write the charter yourself. Put in whatever you want. Put in a rule that says the director serves 5 years and then he's out, no extension, no exceptions. So, nobody ever gets comfortable.
Put in a rule that says the director doesn't attend leadership off-sites. Put in a rule that says his salary is capped at the median of the workers he covers. Ethan looked up. Say that last one again. Cap your own salary at the median wage of the people on your sites, Claire said.
You want to know if you've drifted, look at your paycheck. If it went up, so did theirs. Ethan Carter sat on a creeper in his own driveway and for the first time in the entire week did not have a ready answer. I'd want it named after somebody, he said finally. Name it whatever you want.
Not me. I assumed not you. Danny Whitcomb. Ethan stood up. He raised it three times before anybody ever heard my name.
All I did was carry it 2 hours in a truck. He's the one who lost his insurance for it. Claire wrote it down on the back of her own business card standing in a driveway with a pen she borrowed from a 13-year-old. At 6: 15 that evening, Danny Whitcomb called Ethan and said, They told me they want to put my name on something. Yeah.
Ethan, I can't have that. Why not? Because I gave up, Danny said and his voice broke wide open. Three times and then I stopped. I got moved to nights and I stopped.
I sat in that diner and I handed it to you because I didn't have the guts to keep going myself. That's not a name you put on a building. Ethan was quiet. Danny. Don't.
You want to know the truth about that diner, Ethan said. I told you no. You remember that I said I'm not that guy anymore and I meant it and I was going to drive home and forget your face. You didn't. I almost did.
I sat in that parking garage twice. Ethan's voice was low. Danny, you didn't give up. You handed it to the next man. That's not quitting.