Fragility and Risk, the modern Scylla and Charybdis lure the enterprise to wrecking stations and require response;

So do not show us how clever you are with feats of rhetoric and applause, awards and more.

But exceed the budget, drive the business hard, and consider bold outcomes in both halves;

Better your personal best, let them elevate the bar.

There’s glory, team, in over-delivery; and under promising is the lower profile, safer route to bonus.

There’s peer group respect as well, jealousy’s far better than contempt;

There’s safety in numbers rather than words and flaky visions; trust in the protected, padded cells of spreadsheets your priority tasks and recall

The springs of human motivation respond more to golden sticks than insubstantial carrots, the root vegetable of the loser.

The early years were easy years of growth:

The energy of childhood’s spurt and spring;

Inventing new traditions like flasks and flowers

And finding fertile joy in everything.

The middle game seemed far more sweat than swot,

With sacrifice of threatened piece and peace,

The darkest night of Enterprise’s time,

All progress checked and pinned with no release.

And so the final reel, the transaction scene

Where money changes hands and with it lives,

All the bitter twisted limbo feeling

Of leaving, but not leaving still survives.

You found, you build, you inspire and grow,

But selling out costs more than you can know