fandomhigh | Young Entrepreneurs; Monday, Period 6 [ 02/09 ].

Turtle had very seriously considered calling off the meeting. It was bad enough having to wake up next to the guy she'd married over the weekend without having to sit in a small group of people at him in a business-type setting.

However, there was a lesson in all of this, and a successful person would strive to use that lesson to her advantage to help better move along. So she was there at the head of the table as usual, trying her best to look like her face wasn't constantly red as she drew herself up professionally.

"One thing," she started, after clearing her throat to make sure her voice didn't waver, "that is very important in business relationships, especially in small groups, is that there is a clear and distinct line between the business and the personal. One cannot let some personal incident interfere with the fact that he or she has a job to do. Your business does not care if you got drunk at the company party and said stupid thing. It does not care if you thought you were someone else and married one of your business partners. It does not take excuses like that, and so it is very important for a young entrepreneur to always exude an air of pure, unflappable professionalism. If any of you," which she knew at least one other person did, "had a weekend as weird as mine, this is a lesson we could all stand to hear. So today, that's what we're going to do. We're going to network with each other on very professional levels, completely disregarding any personal aspects that may try to interfere."

And, failing that, there was always the usual assortment of things to eat to stuff into your mouth before you said something stupid.

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Not looking at someone was a giveaway, but Leto saw no reason to try and increase the uneasiness.

"So," he said to Turtle. "On a purely theoretical level, the line between the personal and the professional may be drawn quite differently depending on cultural background. What would your suggestion be if two parties experiences difficulties in a business context for this reason?"

He picked up a donut.

Turtle had a moment of looking over at Leto and wondering if he was seriously going to get into something like this with her now, but she sighed a little and reminded herself that the whole point of the club today was to just get on with it, so she did.

"Compromise," she said, simply. "If the cultures were to clash to a point where it became an issue, it only comes to reason that both parties are responsible for sucking it up a little, to compromise their positions a little for the benefit of the partnership as a whole."

He raised an eyebrow. She had been the one suggesting business as usual, after all. "That requires that both parties are perceptive enough to see this, and a balance of power."

"I feel," Turtle said, "that being successful in business requires that sort of perception, and that unbalanced powers goes against the definition of 'partner.'"

"That requires the world to shape to your view of it," he teased her. "I think that truly balanced power is a rare thing in any kind of relationship."

"I've got a good view of it," Turtle couldn't help at least a little bit of a smirk back to that. "Maybe it should shape to it. And perhaps it is, but just because something is rare doesn't mean you should abandon the effort to accomplish it."

"Ah, if only you had the tools to shape the world to your will," he grinned. "But I agree. Too often the effort is reversed and the lack of balance makes the scales turn over."

"In my world," Turtle offered, "there's a phrase that says that absolute power corrupts absolutely. And I think there's more; I think it's kind of like a scale, you know, so if you're as close to a perfect balance as you can get, the situation is ideal. Sure, situations are rarely the ideal, but if there wasn't that challenge, then what would be the point of trying?"

"There will always be challenges," Leto said, letting a little of the tiredness he occasionally felt at the prospect of facing them seep into his voice. "My father once said that there exists no separation between gods and men; one blends softly into the other. But we should strive for being human, should we not?"

The turn of Turtle's lip was sympathetic for that recognizable sound of tiredness in Leto's voice, and she nodded. "Because only fools continually strive to be something that they can't."

"Only fools, yes." He should be more focused, Leto told himself, but his mind kept drifting and he found himself staring at the half-eaten donut.

Young Entrepreneurs; Monday, Period 6 [ 02/09 ].

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