AllFreeNovel
Share Us
1
A Short-but-Powerful Motivational Speech from Your Hero…
Ty Sterling
Timing is everything. That, and relentless pursuit of your goal. When those two things come together, one can achieve what others would consider impossible. It’s not luck. It’s not magic. It’s not the cosmos or the alignment of the stars, or whether Mars is in retrograde. That’s all bullshit—excuses people give themselves when they don’t have what it takes to make it.
The truth is this: achieving your dreams is a matter of putting in the work that no one else will. It’s that simple, and it’s that hard. And that’s why most people accomplish far less than they could in their lives. Because they’re not willing to grind it out day after long day until they get where they’re going. It becomes too hard or too boring or they feel like they’re missing all the fun, so they quit. They give up and accept an ordinary life when they could be living an extraordinary one, like the one I’m leading now. At thirty-six, the corporation I started with my best friend was a Fortune 500 company and I had already made my first billion. At forty-one, I have enough to make my one real dream come true.
I didn’t start out rich. In fact, I grew up in a lower middle-class family until my shitty excuse for a father abandoned our family when I was eleven (which meant we went from poor to really frigging poor). My mother died when I was nineteen and overnight, I became the sole caregiver of my little brother, Michael. Did I give up my dream? No, I did not. I worked harder than I thought possible, juggling his needs (which were many considering he’s on the autism spectrum) with my need to educate myself, start a business, and make a disgusting amount of money in the shortest amount of time imaginable.
I did it all because I know the meaning of the word relentless. When I set my mind to something, I will make it happen because, if there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s that no one is going to hand you anything. You go out and get it. When you’ve actually gotten your shit together and you’re poised and ready to pounce, that’s when the timing comes in. Because when the opportunity of a lifetime presents itself, if you’re not prepared, you’ll miss it.
My opportunity of a lifetime is happening right at this very moment, and I can tell you one thing—there’s no way in hell I’m going to miss it. It’s taken surgical precision and putting myself in exactly the right place at precisely the right time, but basically I’m at the finish line. I’m one signature away from having my dream come true. Well, technically two signatures, an enormous transfer of cash, and then the actual purchase itself, but the point is, I’m so close, I can almost taste victory. Unfortunately in this case, it smells like a sweaty locker room after the Super Bowl.
“It’s done,” I say into the phone as I climb into the back of the limo. The driver shuts the door and I settle myself against the leather seat and finally let my shoulders relax.
“Wow. That’s … quite an accomplishment, Mr. Sterling,” Donna, my assistant, says.
Donna’s amazing. She’s my calendar, my bouncer, my memory, and at times, my conscience all rolled into one. Other than my brother, Donna is the closest thing I have to family. I can tell by that little pause between the word ‘that’s’ and ‘quite’ that she disapproves of what I’m doing. She shouldn’t bother to say anything though because I’m not going to change my mind. Not after over twenty years of planning and working towards this moment. And certainly not after spending the last five days in Dallas flattering the insufferable Mrs. Muffy Bowles-Tillington to get her to sell. I’ll finally own the only thing that my father cares about. And I can make sure he never gets to enjoy it again, which will be worth every fucking penny. If any man deserves it, it’s him.
“Have the contract sent to the printer on the jet.”
“Certainly, Mr. Sterling. And before you ask, the money hasn’t been deposited into the foundation’s trust account yet,” she says. “I spoke with Rohan, who told me those papers haven’t been signed either and that Dr. Napper doesn’t want to be bothered with that today.”
Dr. Richard Napper—or as the world knows him, Dr. Dick Napper—has been my business partner for the last eighteen years, during which time we’ve taken a simple idea of his (at-home DNA testing kits) and turned it into a multi-billion-dollar bio-tech corporation. I’m the money guy, he’s the inventor. It’s a match made in heaven, or I should say it was until we made so much money, he decided he’d rather galivant around the globe than show up to work.
“It’s been three weeks. I hope Rohan told him that I really will pull my half of the money out of the trust account. I don’t want to do it because it’ll really hurt the foundation, but if I have to I will.”
“I made sure to tell Rohan to impress upon him what was at stake.”
“Thank you. What’s he doing that’s so important?”
“At the moment, he’s on a helicopter in Tanna, Vanuatu.”
Of course he is, because he couldn’t be on this side of the planet when the most important deal of my life is teetering on the edge. “What is it this time?”
“He’s about to be dropped onto one of the planet’s most active volcanoes so he can set some sort of world record.”
“For what? Most insatiable need to overcompensate?” As soon as I say it, I feel bad. Richard’s one of the very few people I can trust in this world. I’m just mad that he’s dragging his feet on something so important to me.
She snort-laughs, then says, “Something like that. If you get to the plane in the next fifteen minutes, you’ll be able to watch it live on the Dick Cam.”
“As much as I wish I could, I’ll be busy running the company we started together.”
“Are you still planning to come home tonight or do you want me to have your flight rerouted to Vanuatu so you can apply pressure in person?”
“I’ll go home. I’ve already been gone too long,” I tell her.
Whenever possible, I try not to be gone for more than three days. It’s too hard on my little brother, Michael. (Sidenote: Michael would be highly irritated that I’ve just called him ‘little,’ on account of him being an adult. He takes everything quite literally. Because he’s the same height as me and weighs ten pounds more, he’d tell you, I’m actually the little brother and he is the younger one. But since I’m seven years older than him, and I raised him since he was twelve, he’ll always be little to me.)
Despite having a live-in caregiver, Greta—who Michael adores and vice versa—he gets upset when I’m away too long. He manages three days quite well without me, but much longer than that and he struggles. The truth is, I struggle too because I can’t sleep anywhere other than my own bed. Not in the world’s finest hotels, or on the biggest, most luxurious yachts. Not even on my jet (which I’ve had fitted with the exact same mattress, pillows, and bedding as my bed at home). Certainly not at a girlfriend’s house, when I’ve had one. This means that other than a few short catnaps taken while sitting up, I have been awake since Sunday. And it’s now Thursday. But it’s totally worth it because … revenge. “Find out where Richard’s going to be tomorrow and arrange for me to go there in the morning.”
“If I had to guess, I’d say he’ll be at the morgue,” Donna says dryly.
“He’d better not be. I need him alive to sign the papers and buy me out of the trust already.”
When she doesn’t offer a quip back, I know she’s got something to say.
