everyone looked at Joe. No words were said, but Joe could read the faces of the executives: What’s wrong with him this morning? Can’t Joe see we’re doing our best? Everyone in the industry is having trouble; we’re in no worse shape than anyone else. The rest of the day, the executives stayed away from Joe. Joe was de昀椀nitely in a bad frame of mind. Am I crazy, or are we too fat and happy? What happened to our 昀椀re? Other unpleasant thoughts raced through his mind: Will we have to let people go? How will it look if we downsize? How will I look as the leader of this company if we lose business? Joe’s umbrellas was not a small concern — it had thousands of dedicated employees at factories and of昀椀ces throughout the world. Joe had worked tirelessly to grow the company, secure the loans, buy millions of dollars of equipment, hire the top executive talent and even acquire other manufacturing operations. Joe had been named “Corporate leader of the year” and had been the topic of numerous business articles. what he saw in that boardroom was troubling. but what troubled him more was that it felt too normal — it wasn’t that different from all the other meetings. it’s just that today the news was bad enough that he felt it. He had been numb — numb for too long. He was starting to see things clearer when he was interrupted by his assistant, “your lunch appointment is here.” Joe snapped out of his daydreaming and realized his banker and accounting 昀椀rm were meeting with him. Maybe after lunch I can get back to this, he thought. but, as usual, there was no time. His schedule was wall-to-wall with meetings until the end of the workday. 6