octolilly [through the years]

During my International Marketing class yesterday, Peter and Ruth Thomas came to speak about life in the corporate world. Our professor had told us a few things before their arrival and one of those things was that they are exceptionally wealthy and have 50+ combined years in high-level management. Ruth was one of the few women who reached the upper level management when women were told they should stay at home. This couple quickly made it to the top of the corporate world in no time.

Unexpectedly, Peter began having heart problems and found himself in the hospital with chest pains. Triple bypass surgery was scheduled. He said, as he was lying naked on the steel table, covered in a green sheet that he suddenly realized all he had been pursuing would not satisfy. The last thing he remembers is the nurses frantically leaning over him as his heart rate dropped suddenly. He woke up with a friend of the family presenting the Gospel to him. The tears poured down his face as he told of accepting Christ as his Savior. All of the sudden, everything that they had been living for didn’t matter. Peter spoke with his boss and informed him that there were new rules now. No longer would he leave on Sundays to jet to Australia (to be gone for five days and then return for a weekend relationship with his wife) but he would leave only during the week. He made it clear that he would be in church on Sunday and that if he was out of the country during the week that the company must pay for any phone calls he made to Ruth. The final straw was broken when Peter overheard his CEO bragging that he hadn’t attended the high school or college graduation for any of his daughters. It was clear that this corporate world was nothing that Peter wanted to be a part of any longer.

He now works as a cross-cultural developer for team management. A few days ago, he returned from Kuwait City, where he’d been mending relations between two companies. Apparently, the CEO of a company in Spain was in Kuwait City to meet with a South Korean CEO of a company based out of New York City. The Spanish CEO didn’t go to the airport to meet this man and the South Korean man became horribly offended. Peter traveled to Kuwait City to mend the situation. After many talks and open-ended discussions, he made the Spanish CEO take the other gentleman to the ritziest restaurant in downtown Kuwait City…and it saved a $1.5 billion project!

This couple said so many things that challenged and sobered me. In just a few months, I will be leaving this bubble to enter the business world. Maintaining my testimony is essential and as a woman I will be faced with the issues that could damage it within seconds. Ruth spoke of business trips she had to take and facing the realization that she was the only woman there. She received many propositions from high-level management. Listening to her warnings unleashed something that I have hidden inside for sometime. I love business, especially marketing, but I would throw that away in a second to be a wife and a mother. The choices that I would face as a career woman truly scare me. I know that the values I hold deep within my heart aren’t going to change but the fact that I would have to choose between values and money is sad. Ruth warned us to never put ourselves in a situation that would clash with our values. The corporate world thinks nothing of lying or flirting to win a contract. Everyone has a price at which they can be bought…but as a Christian I don’t want to choose dishonesty to gain $20,000 even if I have a child who is in serious need of surgery.

I know it has been God’s will for me to be a business major and I thoroughly enjoyed my internship. However, during the board meetings- when the CEO of the hospital system would rant and rave only to subtly compliment me on my dress…I would get chills. The job fair that was held a few weeks ago disgusted me as well. There were more than 50 companies present but I had to leave just after speaking with two. I couldn’t handle the large hovering groups of leering businessmen. My heart just fears the corporate world. Part of me wants to appreciate my business education and then do something entirely different. The other part of me says that I must prepare myself to interview with these companies no matter what.