Relentless

by Ted W. Baxter

  One night, as I was finishing my homework when I was in the third grade, my mother told me that if you want to be the best student in school, you have to practice a lot, research, and ask a lot of questions. Without saying it outright, she was letting me know how to achieve my goals to become an overachieving student and in life as a leader. And that advice stuck with me. Just like what I had to overcome when I had a massive stroke. Because of my experiences early in life, I had the tenacity to deal with the challenges presented with my stroke and aphasia. I know that if my mother were alive, she, too, would be my cheerleader and provide me support and encouragement.

  CHAPTER 9

  Pedal to the Metal

  After I graduated high school, I decided to go to Hofstra University, a private college on Long Island known for its public accountancy program.

  “It’s a great school, Ted, and it will allow you to live at home. The scholarships will help,” my father said to me after going with me to speak to a counselor at Hofstra. I had earned three scholarships from Valley Stream South High School. They wouldn’t go far toward the tuition, but every bit helped. “You’ll only have to cover tuition and books. We’ll help you apply for a student loan, but you are going to want to get a part-time job,” he said and then smiled at me. “You’ll be fine.”

  I bought a used Camaro and planned to do more than just cover my necessities. I majored in financial accountancy and took computer science classes as a possible minor. I also got a full-time job at the Dime Savings Bank of New York at the bank’s computerized processing facility, which handled all their bank systems across all their branches. Eventually, I was promoted to supervisor of the second shift, which meant that I worked full time while going to college as a full-time student.

  I commuted to my morning classes at Hofstra University and then worked from three p.m. to eleven p.m. at the Dime Savings Bank’s computer facility. I was the second-shift manager. I didn’t play any sports at Hofstra, but I did organize and manage a Sunday night softball team each summer for three years. That was the only time I was with all my friends.

  Hofstra was big compared to other schools on Long Island, with a student population of fifteen thousand. There was one professor I picked for every accounting class that he taught—accounting 1 and 2 and financial accounting. What I admired most about him was that he was extremely smart, especially about numbers and scheduling. He was happy to talk about his job, and I was surprised, at first, to learn that teaching wasn’t all that he did. He was also a partner for an accounting firm.

  “I go to work at my other job at three p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are full days. I can teach here Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from eight a.m. to one p.m., and I love to teach.”

  “Is it true that you develop all of the tests?” I asked as the rest of the class filed in before one of our classes.

  “It’s true,” he said with a smile. He’d stay after class to correct those same tests and to answer questions. I often spoke to him about balancing two jobs. I wanted to emulate his time management to help me with my working and taking classes at the same time.

  Like most universities, Hofstra had two sessions: fall and spring with a break between. I always took a course during that six-week winter intersession. But, my senior year, I participated in an internship program for the six-week winter intersession. In order to do so, I had to interview with ten firms—the Big Eight and two mediumsized firms.

  “. . . all of the Big Eight accounting firms,” I boasted to my mother, “and both of the others. They each offered me an internship,” I added, knowing that she would be proud.

  “Which will you choose? Will you be guaranteed a job after school?” she asked.

  “There’s no guarantee, but I have a definite chance,” I told her. “I’m going with Price Waterhouse.”

  I knew there wouldn’t be enough time to do everything—classes, internship, and my second-shift job, so I told my boss, “I need a break.”

  “I understand, Ted. You are certainly welcome back after the internship.”

  So, I took a leave of absence from the Dime Savings Bank for my six-week stint at Price Waterhouse. Then, I went back to my job and my last semester of classes.

  I earned my bachelor of business administration (BBA) in three years and graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. It was time to leave the Dime Savings Bank for good.

  “I got the job, Mom!” I happily called her to tell her that I had been offered a position by each of the ten accounting firms, and she cheered with joy. I knew that I was on the right path.

  “The same place as the internship?” she asked.

  “Yeah, Mom. The same place. I’m going full time at Price Waterhouse in August.”

  That November, after taking a fast-prep class, I took and passed all four Certified Public Accountant (CPA) sections in one shot. It meant sitting through these tests and concentrating on them for three and a half days straight.

  Price Waterhouse

  I was twenty years old in 1983 and working as an auditor with some of the biggest industries in New York, including Chase Manhattan, Chemical Bank, and several of the big players in the securities industry. I even branched into manufacturing and nonprofit companies. I got a taste of every industry so I could see what was most interesting to me. I decided I liked financial services.

  “How’s work, Ted?” my brother Tom asked me one day a few months after I’d been working at Price Waterhouse full time. I quickly learned that many people weren’t as ambitious as I was, but I think my family understood.

  “I applied for a position in the management consulting department,” I told him.

  “Wow! You’re so young. Do you think you’ll get it?”

  “It’s not easy to get into. They’ll only take thirty people, from Price Waterhouse or from university masters’ programs . . .”

  “But, do you think that you’ll get it?” he asked again.

  “Yes, I do,” I answered and laughed a little. He laughed with me but offered his best wishes. I got the job. I started in that department in 1985.

  Those of us who were chosen were sent to study system programming at Montclair State in New Jersey for six weeks. Then, we were all sent to Tampa, Florida, for the rest of the year to build and implement a new system from scratch—from requirements definition to user acceptance to production cutover. After that, I went back to my New York office as a Price Waterhouse management consultant.

  My first client was Chase Manhattan Bank, which had eight or nine locations in New York City. When you work as a management consultant, your time and billing per hour relate to the client’s deadline; for example, having their financial strategy outlined and their systems and processes defined and implemented in a clientdriven time frame—all of them had to be there by a specific time, complete and finished. I’d spend four days out of the week at Chase Manhattan’s facilities on Wall Street and then go into the Price Waterhouse office on the fifth day. My job encompassed a wide variety of services. One month, I was working with a partner to define a model CFO for the World Bank in Washington, DC, and the next, I was working on a feasibility trade system for Lehman Brothers with a group of consultants. Then the next month, I’d evaluate the processes and systems and write user procedures of the American Stock Exchange and work on a proposal for Salomon Brothers. These were all jobs I’d been trained to do, but I had to be flexible and spontaneous because I never knew what I’d be doing next for my client. Over the next few years, I took on Smith Barney and Salomon Brothers, in addition to Chase.

  In 1990, when I was twenty-seven years old, I was living in a New Jersey condo I’d bought with my best friend, Tony, and commuting to New York every day. I decided it was time to take a seriously frivolous vacation, so my friend Dan and I booked an all-inclusive package—hotel, meals, all the extras—in Jamaica.

  Kelly Comes into My Life

  That’s where I met Kelly. She had come to Jamaica for the same allinclusiv
e package.

  “She’s pretty, huh?” Dan asked, nudging me in the ribs. I swatted his arm away, fought the blush that threatened to give me away, and continued to steal glances at her. She wore her hair long, to her shoulders, and more than once, she caught me looking at her. She’d whip that hair to the side and look right back, allowing a smile to fill her face.

  I could see at first glance that she was pretty, outgoing, and genuine.

  “So, Kelly,” I started, after breaking the ice and learning her name, “are you going to take the bus trip today?” I knew there was an activity scheduled for the afternoon, which was included as part of the all-inclusive package.

  “Um . . .” She smiled and blushed. “I think so. Are you?” If she was, of course I planned to. So, we spent the day together. She had a great personality, and she was straight with me from the start—no games.

  “Where are you from?” I asked her.

  “I was born and raised in a very small town in Illinois,” she replied.

  “But you don’t live there now?” I asked as we sat beside the pool.

  “No, I’m living in El Toro, California, now.”

  “What do you do in El Toro?” I asked.

  “For work?” She looked at me out of the corner of her eyes while taking a sip from one of those drinks with the little umbrella.

  “Yeah, for work,” I answered with a laugh.

  “I’m an administrative assistant at Century 21. It’s a real estate company.”

  We liked each other immediately.

  We liked the same movies, the same music, the same food, and we both liked to travel. We hung out at the beach every day and went out every night while we were in Jamaica. When I got home from that trip, all I could think about was how I could see her again.

  We started trading weekends. I’d go to California to see her one weekend, and then she’d come to the East Coast to see me the next.

  We went on like this for several months, and then I decided that it was time to have a conversation about the situation. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up the same schedule for long, because I had big plans regarding my profession. “I like you, Kelly,” I told her.

  “I like you too, Ted,” she said with a laugh.

  I smiled, but then I took on a serious tone. “Look, if we’re going to do this, I want you to move to New Jersey. I’m sorry. I can’t give up my job, my career at Price Waterhouse. I’ve been in two longdistance relationships. Neither of them worked.”

  “I know that,” she said, and she was quiet for minute.

  “Maybe you can go to school, if you want . . .”

  “It’s okay, Ted. I knew that I’d have to move to you. You can’t give up your job, and Century 21 . . . it’s a good job, but it was only meant to be a stepping-stone. It’s time to figure out what I want to do. I’ll move to New Jersey.”

  Working and Wharton

  “I’m going to go back to school,” I told Kelly one night over dinner. She was living in New Jersey, and we had fallen in love. Our relationship had a nice rhythm, and we were both happy.

  “Really? That’s exciting. Can you do that while working this job? You’re quite busy as is,” she said.

  “It won’t be easy, but I can do it.”

  She smiled at me. “I know you can. If anyone can, it’s you.”

  She was being so supportive. I knew that this was someone that was going to be very important in my life. Shortly after that conversation, we decided to get married. We got busy planning, because we wanted to be wed before I started at Wharton. We were married on Long Island and then enjoyed a beautiful honeymoon at Saint John and Saint Thomas in the Caribbean. It was a wonderful calm before the chaos began.

  After the wedding, it was time to get back to work. By then, I was a senior manager, and I discussed the executive MBA process with my boss, Mike Balk. Mike helped me with the necessary recommendations so I got accepted to Wharton’s Executive MBA program. That meant that for the first two years of our marriage I was at class every other weekend and busy all week with work. I was still working full time with all my usual clients, while taking classes and managing homework. This is when I most appreciated the before-class lessons about time management from my previous professor from Hofstra University.

  It was a hectic time in my life but a happy one, because I had someone by my side.

  Kelly

  There were times in the early days when it was hard because Ted was always working and going to school. He had to take the GMAT to get into grad school, and for him, that meant studying for it and taking the prep classes for the GMAT. He really dug into it. He was like that with everything. He’s a preparer, for sure. He wouldn’t even go to the pool with me when we were on vacation. That was hard.

  “Gosh, would you just stop studying for ten minutes?” I asked him one day.

  “No, I can’t,” he’d mutter with his face in one book or another.

  On the other hand, he was also very good at helping me when I got overwhelmed. I’d tell him, “I have forty things on my to-do list.”

  “That’s okay. Take the top three. Write those down. Do those today and forget the rest of the list.” He was good at simplifying and not putting his stuff on me.

  He was so focused, so organized and calm. He always had a purpose and a goal; he was always moving forward, and he was always calm about it all. Even with all that he had going on, even with his intensity, he was calm. He doesn’t do unnecessary stuff. If he asked you to do something, there was a reason for it. He never started projects that he didn’t finish, and he never started projects that weren’t meant to benefit either his career or our life together.

  And he had ways to play. Even though he was so determined, he certainly knew how to have a good time. He picked great vacation spots, romantic getaways, and restaurants, and he loved going to plays and music concerts and hanging out with our friends. Ted put 110 percent into everything he did.

  CHAPTER 10

  Moving, Moving, Moving: Out, Up, Everywhere

  Price Waterhouse had three divisions: audit, tax, and management consulting. Each division focused on financial services. This creates a matrix in the organization of Price Waterhouse. I worked as a management consultant in the financial services industry area. By the time I earned my executive MBA, I had completed major consulting engagements for Salomon Brothers, UBS Investment Bank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Deutsche Bank, and Chase Manhattan Bank.

  And again, I was ready to tackle something new, so one day, I stopped by the office to see my boss, Juan Pujadas. He was one of my mentors, a distinguished partner who was in his midthirties at the time. He had joined Price Waterhouse at a young age and become a partner in his ninth year with the company. He made things happen and was a fantastic consultant. I made it my objective to do the same. I wanted to be in a place that would allow me to make partner quickly—at a place where I could interact with a lot of clients, use a wide array of our services, become a specialist in one or two skill sets, and manage a lot of consulting projects. It was a goal that I would eventually reach.

  “What am I supposed to do next?” I asked him.

  Juan said, “I’m sending you to Tokyo.” I had already been to Tokyo to be involved with two potential clients and to submit proposals on two projects. In the end, we lost both of them. But those proposals were doomed to failure because they were led by Price Waterhouse New York with English speakers who hadn’t lived in Tokyo. At that point, we didn’t realize that the Japanese companies preferred a provider that was Japanese based. This would be a different sort of approach. “If this doesn’t work in one year, then we will have to reevaluate whether it makes sense for us to have financial services consulting in Tokyo. If it works, our practice will grow, prosper, and blossom in one of the major financial cities of the world.”

  “You’re going to move to Japan?” my mother asked upon hearing the news. “You’re going to live there?”

  “Yes, Mom,” I replied.
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  “How? How will you do that? Do you even speak Japanese?”

  “I’m taking a class, Mom,” I said somewhat defensively, but then changed my tone. “It’ll be challenging. I’ll have to learn Japanese, work in a new business environment, learn Japanese customs, and blend in as much as I can.” I decided that I would need to pick foreign expatriates to come with me and then to hire local staff while there. I didn’t express that, though. I just said, “I’ll make it work.”

  “What about Kelly? Is she okay with this? Does she speak Japanese?”

  “Yes. She’s going too. She’ll have to learn the language too.”

  “But, what about her job?” my mother asked.

  “She’s putting in her notice.”

  Kelly did have to quit her job as an executive assistant in an investment firm. She would have to learn Japanese in order to make friends, and she’d have to go to Japanese grocery stores. She’d also have to learn their customs so she could interact with people daily.

  “Are you sure about this, Ted? It’s an awful lot to take on.”

  “I’m ready, Mom. I’ve always been a risk taker.”

  She sighed, but I heard the acceptance. “That is the truth.”

  Price Waterhouse already had a presence in Japan but not in financial services consulting. I had to create and grow it from nothing, while learning Japanese on the job. I had taken a short Japaneselanguage course in New York, but it didn’t really register with me. So I was nervous about my ability to communicate once I was there.