Scarlet Shame

This little story is based somewhat on a collection of experiences I have had in my professional and academic career ranging from understanding from where I came to my confusion over the ridiculous pitches I have heard at start-up fairs. Seriously, some of them made this comic seem reasonable: http://xkcd.com/1060/

This story is also a cheapshot taken at my school's bitter rival. It's all in good fun, and I actually do respect their alumni quite a bit, except for Kirk Herbstreit, but that is a story for another time.

Scarlet Shame.

Hester zipped up her jacket as she walked out the door. She bought the jacket years ago after her freshman orientation. The neutral colored jacket sported but one distinguishing feature, a stylized vowel on the left breast pocket.  Despite its once bright scarlet hue now fading to more of a shade of pink by football seasons, walks by the river, and lounging on the oval, she wore it with pride. After all, she knew that the institution it represented made her what she is today, and she cherished the memories more than anything.

She turned around and took in her home. It wasn’t much, but it was her first real apartment by herself. She loved her old roommates, but it was time to move on and be an adult, and the town was a charming full of friendly folks as one expects in the Midwest. On cold days she had to talk the corner shop into letting her pay for her coffee, and things of the like. It was a good place.  Something she would have never found if it were not for her new job, and she would never have landed it without the connections from her college. It all goes back to that place.

Arriving at work was always a bit of a spectacle for Hester, partially because she was the type to make a scene out of everything and partially because she always stood out. Being the only female engineer in a small company is always going to weigh on a woman’s mind, but, additionally, all of her co-workers had something else in common.

“So when are you going to lose that old jacket?” Lloyd asked her somehow peering at her from across his desk without actually looking at her. “It really isn’t professional to be seen in something as worn and tasteless as that.”

“Shut up. I love this jacket,” she replied, knowing where the conversation was going.

“We’ll, I’m just saying I would hate to drive away potential customers just because you showed up looking like that. Listen, you are probably swamped by your student loans. So, we could take up a collection and get you something. I’m liking this,” he said as he pointed to his computer screen.

Hester walked around his desk and recoiled in disgust complete with an audible sticking out of her tongue for dramatic effect. What she saw was a dark-blue jacket with a large bright-yellow letter sewn to the back. She returned to her desk without saying a word. Altogether, her job was good, but it was a small company founded by a couple of alumni from the bitter rival of her school to the north. In fact, she was the first person hired by the company who had not attended that college. Sometime she bothered them about it, but she didn’t understand their condescension. What made their school so much better? After, they hired her. She was always amazed at how much she learned at her university. It really made her the engineer she was today. Then, Hester brightened a bit as she thought to her plans that day. She counted the hours until lunch when she would be meeting with some old college friends. “This is going to be fun,” she thought.

Arriving at the small diner, Hester’s face immediately lit up. Woody AND, Jim, AND Emily were there! They were probably the brightest classmates she had ever had. Sharing an alma mater with them made her so proud.

After dispensing with greetings and pleasantries, and finally after several reminders by the waitress to actually looking at their menus and ordering they began discussing business.

“So, tell us about the job?” Woody asked first.

“Well, we are a small firm that designs parts for joint and limb prosthetics. It was a bit slow at first but they have me working on some interesting projects. In fact we are applying for a new patent. It should be a major improvement the durability of replacement joints.” Hester replied.

“So you really like it there?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, except in football season.” Hester Joked.

“You see that is why we wanted to talk with you, we were wondering if you would want to work with us. You might find it a lot more friendly atmosphere.” Jim responded.

“Really, you are starting a business? Oh my goodness, this is amazing, what is your plan?” Hester had to hold back here immediate consent, but the thought of working with these three was overwhelming her in the best possible way.

“Well, we are going to be doing logistics consulting for a web-app that will find crowd-source engineering solutions databases.” Jim exclaimed with delight.

Hester could tell that Jim had been waiting all day to say that. Beyond that, Hester was confused, “So, you are making an app?”

“No, we are doing consulting for people who want to make an app.” Jim corrected.

“An app that manages crowdsourced engineering solutions?” Hester asked.

“No, the app helps people find places that do engineering crowdsourcing.” Jim Corrected again.

“Let me get this strait. Your business plan is to tell people how to make a piece of software that tells people where to ask random strangers to help them solve their design problems, and all of these strangers would have to front their own R&D expenses? So at what point is any actual work being done? I mean couldn’t the customer just type the problem into a search engine and see what comes up?” Hester asked.

“Ohh,” Emily lit up, “We could suggest people have a search engine feature. Hester, you are so smart. You see guys, there is a reason I told you to invite her.”

“Yes, this is already an improvement on my original idea.” Woody said. He then began to explain it in detail. The entire time Hester’s head sank closer to the table wondering how a man she had looked up to for so many years could believe such a foolish endeavor was even feasible.

Hester returned to work at almost 2 PM. Passing her boss, Bo, in the hallway, she lowered her head in shame. She had been caught. Could the day get any worse?

“Taking our time at lunch are we?” he asked.

“I was meeting with some old friends, we kind of got carried away.” She apologized, “Won’t let it happen again.”

“Oh, its quite alright, sometimes you have to put work on hold when the opportunity arises. Have a good afternoon,” he said continuing down the hallway.

Hester called out after him. “Bo, I was wondering. ” He turned around, she continued. “Was talking with my friends from college about a business idea of theirs. I respected these people a lot. Not, just me, but everyone in the school respected them, even the professors. Now I talk to them, and their ideas just seem so foolish. What can change someone like that?”

“Hester, I don’t think anything changed them, but I know you changed, “Do you remember the project that you showed me during your interview?” Bo asked.

“The bird repelling squirrel feeder, yeah. I won best senior project award for it.  Actually, Woody (a friend I met with today) suggested the idea,” Hester held her tongue for a moment, “but who would actually buy such a thing?”

“Well, that is the question. As far as a business idea, it was a terrible product, but we were so impressed by your ingenuity that we decided you were the one we wanted. You came up with some really elegant solutions to a complex problem.” Bo assured her.

“How come no-body at school pointed out how obviously bad it was? I mean compared to the other projects, it was easily the most functional, but looking back I would have rejected them all. I mean, the one Woody did himself would have been the biggest commercial flop of them all. I think in order for it to work the way he described, certain rules of physics would have to be violated, but I can’t put my finger on which ones.”

“Oh, don’t be so harsh,” Bo said, “Students rarely understand the ramifications of their projects. However, in many institutions people simply do not care. They only ask that you make a show of your work without looking at the actual content. In places like that you can get some real slugs who sink into never contributing anything useful. However, you also have innovative and bright people, like yourself, that despite being weighed down with bad ideas, actually learn something.”

“How can you say that? These people, that place, made what I am today. I am here because of that place.” Hester was a little choked up at this point.

“Are you really here because of that school, or are you here in spite of that school. In the end, you accomplishments are your own, but it is a lot easier to accomplish things when you are not fighting the institution around you. That is why we brought you here, and once you cleared your head of that adversity, you really started to shine,” Bo assured her again.

“Trade it for a different adversity. No-one here respects me just because of the school I went to. How can I prove to them that I can contribute?” Hester asked. “I am working with Lloyd, and he never gives it a rest.”

Bo looked confused, “Lloyd respects you more than anyone in this place. He was the one that insisted that your name be added to the patent application. He said without your contributions we would have been working on this for years. As far as the ribbing goes, he does it to everyone. If it really bothers you I know he can tone it down.”

“No, I think that is alright. Thank you anyway.” Hester returned to her desk.
“Nice jacket, you honestly wore that in public” Lloyd said, “The offer still stands on the replacement.”

Hester looked down at the faded scarlet vowel. This morning, it had meant so much to her as a person as her identity, and as her value. Now, it just represented memories, good memories, but memories don’t really dictate what a person can do. Hester removed the jacket. “Nah, I think I’m good. I can handle it myself when the time comes.”