Saturday, September 15
"Please! Your ego is out of control." The two women
stared at O.E. with disappointed looks.
O.E. Orton was at a party with his longtime friends,
Dan and Constance, as well as Dan's new wife, Kay. They
had married just last night and still had that newlywed
luster of love. O.E. had to admit he was jealous-he'd never
find someone like Kay. But what did he expect when he
focused more of his energy on money than on love?
Four years earlier, at age twenty-nine, O.E. had rocked
the business world by selling his tiny software company to a
consortium of banks. He walked away with half a billion
dollars, and many business schools started to include him
on their list of remarkable success stories. Since the sale of
his company, he learned to invest, spent his money lavishly,
and showered women with gifts.
Mere hours before tonight's party, O.E. got the long
awaited news. His careful investments had done well and
his wealth had doubled. O.E. Orton was now a billionaire.
So naturally, he wanted to tell everyone he saw. He was just
explaining to Kay and Constance how women loved him
because he was a rich business genius and how they would
love him even more now that he was a billionaire.
Well, Kay wouldn't. Even Constance was unimpressed.
To be fair, they weren't repulsed by the news of O.E.'s even
more massive fortune. In fact, Kay seemed happy for him,
excited to tell her friends that she now knew a billionaire.
The part that seemed to bother her was his suggestion that
women would want him because he was O.E. Orton, the
rich business whiz kid. She obviously disagreed.
Kay tried to explain. "Don't you get it, O.E.? No woman
wants to hear how brilliant and rich you are when she first
meets you. It makes you seem shallow and conceited. You've
got to stop showing off."
Constance hammered the message home. "I agree.
You'd do much better with women if, instead of telling
them how much money you've made, you told them how
much money you've given away. Maybe we should have
another discussion about charity." She leaned toward him
and smiled.
O.E. didn't want to have a discussion about charity with
Constance, especially now that he was a billionaire. She'd
milk him dry. At first glance, the rich heiress seemed like
the last person to care about charity. But Constance was
different-she had dedicated her life to helping people.
While most of her family and friends cared only about
clothing, cars, and drinks, Constance was a lawyer-a