Danny Columbo was different. In an office where Blue jeans and t-shirts were the normal apparel of the day –signifying an Internet genre, Columbo appeared as though he had his own style collection. This became know as The Columbo Collection.
His style was so profound that the Co Founder made fun of the man and his ties, expensive suits and his trademark, cufflinks. Columbo was from the school of well dressed, professional auto dealers who were successful businessmen and not the "suckers" the general made them out to be when pricing his products or discussing them in meetings.
This didn't sit well with Columbo, or for anyone for that matter, but we all hoped that when the hybrid training system was completed the general may read it and take it to heart.
"Danny, this is a remarkable product. If this company used it for their foundation and sold their other products on top of this they would be much more successful." I said in a meeting one day as we worked on the first of five training manuals.
"Well, why don't you tell him that?" Columbo asked.
"Tell him that, are you nuts. I am a consultant. He doesn't listen to me. He just uses me to for my ideas and then steals them. He'll do the same with you. Eventually, he'll be pissing on your hydrant, taking your ideas, tweaking them so they look like his and fucking them up. He's doing it with the golf tournament right now."
"How so?" asked Columbo.
"Well, it’s a scam. Do you ever think anyone is ever going to go to Pebble Beach? There is never going to be a Pebble Beach in this company. It will never come to fruition. He will claim that the response wasn't good enough. He's cheap. You know that."
"Yeah, he is cheap. That's for sure," agreed Columbo.
Cheap however was not the problem with the general. Everyone has financial problems when they begin a company. However, they make sure the billing and the products that they are selling are worthy of being billed and that the billing they are doing is legitimate.
It wasn't long after the training program was developed, and was launched with a name that was catchy, described the product and was easily brand able that the general decided the product wasn't very strong. This if course had little to do with the fact that Columbo was essentially a one man show and could develop, train, sell, brand and promote the product without any help from the general and his crack engineering team.
The general saw this as a liability and soon decided to get involved in the training process and procedures in an attempt to reign in his new WeePee of Training.
And, since Columbo had come from an Irvine California company that was readying to sell of a division, the general decided to march on that division and make a move for that company.
Columbo now played an important role in those negotiations. Of course, this process was not without turmoil. Unfortunately for the general, he had his wrist slapped because he thought since one of the ex WeePees of Irvine company worked for him he could raid the coffers of employees without being noticed. Yet his reputation preceded itself and jumping ship for many employees of the other company was not in the cards.
While the general was screwing up the company in America with grandiose plans for fantasy expansion – which included new office space with kitchens and game tables and IKEA cubicles to give the air of a real Internet company, he was filtering his brother in Bangalore- who was the generals only saving grace- a crock of crap that any real investor with an audit committee with see through. Smoke and Mirrors was obviously the financial investment criteria of the day and somehow, somewhere, enough people kicked in enough money to shore up the losses for another decade. Unless someone accepted his offer to buy anything…
Tomorrow: With golf is sputtering its time for the Dawn Fitzpatrick Cape Cod Tournament, or was it New Hampshire?
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