CHAPTERI

As Cynthia Harris sat reading the morning newspaper, she could sense it was going to be another typical day in New York City. The crime rate was up, the stock market was down, and according to the weather forecast it was going to snow. Cynthia shuddered at the thought of severe weather, after all these years she still did not like walking in the snow, especially when it turned to slush. Usually, with the high volume of traffic, the snow became a discolored, ugly, and dangerous mess, quite indicative of some of the people who lived in the city. However, she liked the freshly fallen snow because it was quite beautiful and reminded her of all the possibilities the city had to offer.

Cynthia placed the newspaper on the table, looked around her apartment and smiled, here she was a Southern Girl from Alabama, who came to New York and defied the law of failure. She was Vice-President of Advertising for Bauer& Bauer Incorporated, a well-known advertising firm on Madison Avenue. She lived in a luxury apartment building in the best part of the city and was engaged to the most wonderful man in the world, she could not ask for more; but her rise up the corporate ladder was not an easy one. Looking back on her arrival in the Big Apple, she had no idea where to start looking for a job, money was extremely tight, and she had to sub-let a studio apartment in an extremely old building. Her first job was as a secretary for a law firm on Wall Street, but being the eager and ambitious person she was, she could not be satisfied with the position.

Once while talking to her boss about the situation, he gave her the name of a friend of his in the advertising business. It turned out he was interviewing for a Department Manager position within his firm. Cynthia felt this was her chance to make it big, but to her dismay she was not considered for the position. As he explained, she was qualified but lacked the experience needed to head such a huge department. After that, she felt as though her life was at a standstill, interview after interview, they all said the same, “lack of experience”. How could she gain experience, when she spent all her life in school, but she did not give up and one day lady luck smiled on her. She received a phone call from her boss’ friend of Bauer& Bauer, so much time had passed since her awful interview, she had almost forgotten about him. He mentioned that, even though she was not ready for a position as Department Manager, he did feel she would be an asset to their Sales Force and wanted to hire her as a Sales Manager Trainee. From that moment on her climb was all up hill, she became Department Manager, and within thr