Chapter 1

Eighteen years with the company, I wasn't only an employee but also a machine that never stopped.

From sales rep to sales director. I trained fifty-eight top performers. I set the company's highest sales record ever.

Year after year, I ranked first in performance reviews and stood on stage receiving awards.

The CEO pointed at me during a company-wide meeting and said, "This man is our anchor."

I believed him.

Then Monday morning came. HR called me into the office. The termination letter was already on the table, pen waiting.

I asked why. They stammered, gave me half-answers, and finally landed on: "Company restructuring."

I flipped through the layoff list. Among the seventy-plus people in the sales department, I was the only one.

That afternoon, I sat in the coffee shop downstairs for a long time.

My laptop was still open to the training slides I'd spent two weeks preparing for next week's session.

The chairman appeared out of nowhere and sat down across from me. He smiled and asked, "How's next week's training coming along?"

I closed my laptop and looked up at him. "I was laid off."

His smile froze.

*****

When HR called my desk, I was in the middle of updating the Brighton Corp Elite Sales Force Training Program 2.0 slides for next week.

I was on slide fifty-eight of the PowerPoint. There was a photo of Henry Warren, the fifty-eighth sales champion I'd trained.

In the picture, he was holding up a trophy, grinning from ear to ear.

HR sounded totally cold on the phone. "Mr. Reed, could you please come to the third-floor conference room right now?"

I said, "Okay," and saved the document.

The time in the bottom right corner of my screen read 9:30 a.m.

The Monday morning meeting had just wrapped up.

At the meeting, the boss gave my training program a shout-out in front of everyone, calling it the engine of the company.

I stood up and tugged at the hem of my shirt.

As I walked past the sales floor, familiar faces looked up from behind their computer screens.

They glanced at me, but their gazes flickered away.

My heart skipped a beat.

The door to the third-floor conference room was half-open.

I pushed it open and stepped inside.

Two people were sitting behind the conference table. One was the HR director, and the other was the legal counsel.

There was a document on the table, and a pen lying beside it.

I recognized that document. It was a termination letter.

Last month, I was with the HR director when we handed the same document to a young kid who failed his probation.

Back then, the HR director told me, "Charles, you're the backbone of this company. With you here, our sales team is steady as a rock."

Then that backbone was about to be ripped out.

I pulled out a chair and sat down and didn't bother looking at them.

I asked, "Why?"

The HR director cleared his throat. "It's a strategic adjustment, and we're optimizing the business structure." It was the same old corporate jargon.

I picked up the termination letter and flipped to the last page, the layoff list. There was a long list of department names. For the Sales Department, there was only one name: Charles Reed.

Out of the entire sales team, over seventy people, I was the only one on the chopping block.

I laughed. "I've led this team for eighteen years and brought home sixteen annual sales titles for the company.

"The Wolfpack Strategy program I created is still the gold standard in the industry.

"I've trained fifty-eight sales champions. They're the backbone of the company now, the very pillars you always brag about.

"My KPI score last month? Still S+."

I looked up at the HR director. "All that, gone because of some so-called strategic adjustment?"

The HR director couldn't even meet my eyes. He adjusted his glasses. "We know how much you've done for us, Charles.

"The company really does appreciate your eighteen years here. But the decision's already been made by upper management.

"This is the Severance Package. We even fought to get you an extra two months' pay as a thank-you."

He pushed the pen toward me. "Sign here."