America 1982-Chapter 103 - 19: Additional Company Benefits
"My original intention in doing this was to help women overcome employment difficulties. Women and mothers are undoubtedly the most respectable people in this world. I’m willing... I ask... I long... I long to work with all of you who are dedicated to gender equality, to contribute to this great social cause. Women are not accessories to men, not just caged birds confined by the family." Tommy sat at his desk, reading the speech he had prepared for Renee, occasionally making revisions to make it sound more sincere.
Holly played with her guitar to the side, her eyes sizing up the focused Tommy Hawk, "Have you started dating Renee?"
"That’s right, under the pressure of studies and entrepreneurship, I have to find a woman willing to help me relax." Tommy said without lifting his head, "Renee also thinks I’m not too bad, so yeah."
Holly made a disgusted face, then asked, "Why didn’t you date me? I’m not jealous of Renee; I’m just curious, women always have all sorts of curiosities."
Tommy put down the speech and looked at Holly, "Because you’re smarter than Renee. Having a smart girl as a girlfriend is troublesome. Renee is perfect, for example. She’s willing to believe that I truly support women’s employment. My idea of a perfect girlfriend is an educated girl from a well-off family life, silly but pretty enough, and somewhat vain. Provide her with enough material comfort, and she will contentedly be a canary. Plus, she’ll have a high tolerance for her partner. For instance, the necklace worth five hundred I gave Renee, moved her so much that she has by now modeled over a dozen types of lingerie for me."
"So should I be glad I’m not a dumb girl?" Holly said to Tommy with a sarcastic tone.
"Don’t keep feeding me that paternalistic crap that traditionalist men love. Change the subject, will you? Professor Mason from the entrepreneurship center is very satisfied with your software. He often needs to deal with all kinds of spreadsheets, and the auto-calculation and fill features of your software save him a lot of effort. He said if there’s time, he’d like to have a chat with you, to hold a small hearing to hear your thoughts. However, for software development, even if it is approved after their discussion, they only provide up to fifty thousand in startup funds, unlike hardware development, which can get a hundred thousand or even several hundred thousand dollars of support. So I’m asking if you’ve got the time."
Looking up from the speech, Tommy looked at Holly, "And the reason I wanted to see you was to ask if you could set up a campus organization for women’s rights with a few partners?"
"Stanford has dozens if not hundreds of women’s organizations, why are you so insistent on me starting another one?" Holly asked somewhat puzzled, "Isn’t Renee applying to join one?"
Their relationship was a strange one, more like friends with benefits. This bastard sweet-talked Renee every time he was with her to keep her happy but never uttered a single word of affection to Holly. He’d only mention that the company would give her a share of the profits, enabling her to be a wealthy woman changing gigolos every night, but admittedly, that promise was more attractive to her than sweet nothings.
"It’s to get our money back, miss," Tommy looked at Holly. "To talk to the women’s group Renee is joining about cooperation, they will surely ask me to donate some of the money I earn to a women’s organization, but they will hypocritically suggest that they wouldn’t force me to donate to them; it could be another women’s group as long as the donation amount is sufficient. So I choose to heed their hypocritical advice, donate the money to the like-minded organization you set up, then you use various excuses for operational expenses to transfer it out, understand? Our money."
"Is this what you learned from your Computer Science major at Stanford University?" Holly gave Tommy a glance. "Are you even stingy with your donations?"
"Hey, I’ll definitely donate. How the women’s organization spends the money is their decision, not mine. Maybe the ladies in the organization need gigolos, and I just happen to take the job because I need the cash," Tommy stood up, stretched his body, and said with a smile.
Holly shrugged and asked Tommy, "Smart women might not make suitable girlfriends, but can’t you at least join one for a meal?"
"Not tonight, let’s do it another time." Tommy was reminded by Holly’s words and glanced at the clock. He quickly grabbed his coat:
"Tonight, Eric and Charles are introducing me to an SSD alumnus who works nearby. We’re planning a little competition. If I lose, I’ll have to strip to my waist, write ’I love Seymour Rubinstein’ (founder of WordStar) across my chest, take a photo, and send it to Rubinstein, saying I’m gay and have been admiring him for a long time."
"What if you win?" Holly asked curiously.
Tommy winked at her, "You wouldn’t like it, it’s boring."
"What else could it be other than furthering your plan to conquer Silicon Valley?" Holly rolled her eyes as if she knew what Tommy would reap. She said, "Gosh, using call girls to take over the sacred Silicon Valley in the hearts of Stanford folks. Worse still, I’m the accomplice. I might end up nailed to the shame post of the university’s history, despicably hated by future generations."
...
At the Fraternity house, Tommy and the alumnus opposite him, smart in a suit but a rascal in essence, shook hands in a familiar manner and embraced before Charles introduced them:
"James Dunn, Symantec Corporation’s employee number one, a double major in linguistics and computer science, eternally nailed to the SSD wall of shame—a damn fool, Tommy Hawk, our great little guy, who brought us the vodka-ping pong championship."
"I’ve seen your picture, hanging in the hall of fame, where you took the runner-up prize at the beer festival. To thank you for screwing up seven years’ worth of championships, the brothers from SSD used to doodle on your photo every day. When I was cleaning, I often had to wipe it down several times a day just to keep it presentable," Tommy said to James Dunn, laughing.
The antivirus software giant, Symantec Corporation, was established only last year, focusing on artificial intelligence and database management. Tommy had just found out Symantec wasn’t planning to develop computer security software at the beginning but got a hefty investment from the United States Government’s foundation with the AI hype. James Dunn was that old bird who wanted to propose selling the software to his boss to help Tommy make a fortune.
Hearing Tommy’s words, James, dressed in a suit like a gentleman, vulgarly flipped the bird at Charles, Eric, and the rest.
"No need to thank me, James, you deserved it. The beer festival was our thing, and you, a damn fool, let someone snatch it away. So I warned myself and the brothers to draw a dick on your face every night before bed, to remind ourselves never to fail," Charles said, unabashed, seeing the raised middle finger.
"This is Tom Prokes, an electrical engineering major. Like James, he just graduated from Stanford last year. Before graduating, he was our treasurer, but now it looks like he’s about to become a homeless dude." Eric introduced another Fraternity alumni to Tommy, laughing.
In contrast to the well-dressed James, Tom looked a bit scruffy, his beard half an inch long and untrimmed, wearing a grey T-shirt, shorts, and slippers, indeed resembling a homeless man.
"My company is in a garage next to the university. It’s just me, another co-founder, and two employees. The software is still in development, so there’s no need to doll up to meet people, which is why I look... plain. Besides, seeing you guys is no reason to get dressed up." After hugging Tommy, Tom introduced his situation, "Your software isn’t bad; I just tried it out, and it’s efficient. But I’m more impressed with the beta testing feedback. Catching problems before the official release is essential. I’m planning to adopt this beta test feedback approach for our software."
"OK, the newbie and veteran challenge is about to begin. The competitors are the champion Tommy and dumbass James, with Tom as the referee. Better finish up quick; we still have to go for dinner," Charles said, moving to the two IBM computers ready for action, smiling at the dozen or so folks gathered:
"The comparison test between SSD-2 and WordStar starts now. Here are the rules: three pages of carefully chosen text with various formats like bold, italics, footnotes, and so on. Both software will be used to type these three pages into a document; whoever finishes fastest with the fewest errors wins. You can now choose who to support, brothers."
Not a single person backed James, everyone stood behind Tommy, which irritated James enough to curse: "It’s just a damn runner-up title, and you bastards can’t get over it?"
The competition was a foregone conclusion. By the time James finished only two-thirds of the task with WordStar, Tommy had already completed the three pages’ worth of typing with SSD-2. And after the final check, with only two typos and all text formatting requirements met, Tom confirmed the outcome: Tommy Hawk won, and James remained the runner-up.
"Well done, kid." Instead of being disappointed, James was surprised and came over to Tommy’s computer screen after learning of his completion: "That’s astounding efficiency. I always thought you just copied some software, changed its appearance, and that’s it. So, I wanted to help you sell it to make a quick buck. But now I think you’re right; my boss doesn’t deserve it. You should do like Tom did with Intuit—set up your own company and sell it, try to make more money."
Tommy paused, looking at Tom next to him: "Intuit? That’s the name of your company?"
"Any problem?" Tom asked, puzzled by Tommy’s question.
"No, just think it’s a great name," Tommy said to Tom: "If I make money, I’ll definitely invest in your company."
Tom thought Tommy was joking, so he didn’t refuse: "Welcome, we never turn away anyone. It’s a painful process for a startup to develop large-scale commercial software independently. The only two employees we have haven’t been paid for nine months. If they weren’t our girlfriends, they would’ve sued us by now. Plus, the damn garage rent keeps going up. If you want to invest, you’d better be quick; I don’t even know when the company might go under."
But Tommy knew that Intuit would never go under. In 2022, any company’s accounting in the United States would use the financial software developed by Intuit, and just about every American had a personal finance app from this company on their phone.
"As per our bet, James, after you lose, you agreed to introduce Symantec’s HR manager to me and my girlfriend. Give us the chance to sell the software and call girls under the guise of supporting female employment, right?" Tommy continued, after remembering the name Intuit.
James frowned: "I don’t recall including the latter."
Tommy patted his shoulder: "Bro, consider the latter a complimentary company perk. It helps you deal with programmers’ need for stress relief without taking leave. Solving this during work hours also boosts Symantec’s efficiency. No thanks needed."
