August 9th (3 page)

Speaking of Maggie, she’s getting her Masters at Cal and we found a cool apartment between the two schools in San Mateo. We’re really closer to Stanford but it seemed like a better option than living in Hayward or Fremont. More importantly, we’ll be living together for the first time. Actually, neither of us has lived with anyone before other than in the dorms. We’ve spent plenty of weekends and sleepovers together but I’m really excited to start our real life together. Of course I missed the sex last year but even more I missed her friendship.

I’m surprised it’s not more awkward to write about Maggie in a letter to you but I can’t escape how easy writing to you remains. Hopefully my writing skills are improving and I thank you for being part of such an everlasting memory.

Hi Tess,

After 19 years of schooling I’m finished unless I want to go back for a Doctorate which doesn’t sound inviting.

Another graduation, another celebration and guess what, I’ve got a job. Can you believe it? I’ve got my first real job making real money and actually started two weeks ago.

My parents flew up for my graduation weekend. My dad, Carl, ever the engineer, always regretted not being able to get his Masters primarily because I was on the way and he needed to support a family. He seemed prouder than I’ve ever seen him and we shared our warmest hug ever. He also enjoyed interacting with my electrical engineering buddy and former neighbor Jeff. He actually understood Jeff’s language which impressed the hell out of me. Of course my mom, Laura, and Maggie have always had a wonderful relationship
with me being their favorite topic which can be awkward at times.

I think I mentioned Stanford’s highly regarded career interviewing process. Now, after going through it, I can’t praise it enough. It was interesting, compelling, challenging and exciting, especially when the companies would talk about who they were, what they did and where they were going. Choosing my prospective employer from the list of a half dozen companies that made me offers was difficult. Although I’m a numbers guy it ultimately came down to people. Who did I want to work for and with? In the end I narrowed the choice to two very different and very new companies, Atari and Kleiner Perkins. Atari invents video games and is just introducing a game called Pong. I got to play it at their new office, in Sunnyvale, and it’s so cool, sort of an electronic ping pong game. Kleiner Perkins is this new Venture Capital firm. They fund other companies, primarily tech start-ups. The fascinating part of their business model is that they get to pick and choose between many new companies on the very cutting edge of new ideas.

Before I made my decision one of my professors recommended I meet with another company. Only it wasn’t really a company, just yet. And, they really didn’t have an office, just yet. In fact, they’re still trying to decide what to call the company. This is a start-up in the truest sense of the word. Three Stanford engineering students, who never graduated, are working out of a garage in one of their parents’ homes. They desperately need a business
guy to help them with their finances including raising money. It’s a little too far out for me but this type of situation is not that uncommon up here. I did have second thoughts about not trying to find out exactly what they’re working on when I heard the professor who told me about them had joined their team.

In the end, I chose the company with the actual product, Atari. I think Pong could be the start of a new entertainment market. Their offices are only about 10 miles from Stanford which means Maggie and I have been able to stay in our apartment in San Mateo. Speaking of Maggie, she absolutely loves Cal and I have to admit the atmosphere there is electric. If Stanford is about innovation and money, Cal is sort of a consciousness incubator. I love them both but I also loved UCLA, so maybe I just love the college environment. Maggie and I really enjoy walking around Berkeley and Haight-Ashbury. This was and still is the center of the hippie, anti-war, free-love world and there can’t be better people watching anywhere.

Getting back to my career, I can’t believe it’s all starting, right now. As you can tell I’m excited about my new life and actually being able to apply what I’ve learned to solve real problems. Or to quote my favorite professor, Rufus Sinclair, at Stanford, “Apply the applicable thought process to solve any specific challenge.”

There’s even more good news. With what I’m making I’ll be able to pay off my student loans in about three years. I’ll be glad to get that overhang taken care of since I might have even better news in the very near future.

Maggie and I really love living together. Since she’s my best friend I’d rather hang out with her than anyone and we really are compatible. She’s much easier to live with than me. Her patience and wonderful perspective help balance my impetuous nature. Although we’re not engaged, just yet, it may happen soon.

Gosh, I’ve written seven paragraphs all about me which is interesting because in business I’ve learned to use the pronoun “we” instead of “I” whenever possible. I’m not sure that’s relevant and what I’m trying to say is, how are you? I know that’s a question I’ll probably never receive an answer to but I really hope you are happy, healthy and excited about your future. I did get a notice from the post office of your address change. Although I’ve never been to Boston I can’t help but wonder if you’re going to grad school or doing something else. Tess, I still see you every day and in my rapidly changing life you remain a wonderful, beautiful constant.

Wow, I just heard the news that Nixon resigned today. Guess he realized impeachment was a certainty and chose to leave on his own. I guess that ends this letter on a high note. Good riddance Dick.

Hi Tess,

It’s been such a crazy busy year that I don’t know where to start, but since work’s been the biggest change in my life I’ll start there. It’s been overwhelming, exciting, stressful and rewarding. There is no such thing as a 40 hour work week. My week is more like 70-80 hours or, as Maggie consistently reminds me, way too much. This whole geographical area is in play, meaning deals, deals and more deals. Meetings and phone calls consume most of my days. Paperwork and preparation for the meetings fill up my evenings. I love the days much more than the nights which too frequently keep me in the office till midnight. The Company is working on all sorts of great new products like video game consoles and compatible computers.

My role is to provide a financial analysis of potential deals and new products. Is it a good deal or product? Will we make money and how much? It sounds pretty
simple but gets awfully complicated very quickly. There’s always a wild card that hovers over everything. That card is everything always seems to be for sale, including the company, if the price is right. It’s the culture of this tech industry. Build, sell and then build something new. Job security is offset by the huge returns for the owners of the companies, either public or private. Getting to that sweet spot is my objective.

Unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the week and work takes me away from Maggie far too often. She’s been very understanding and more concerned about the toll it takes on me, but we both agree that now, while we’re young, is the time to go for it. Plus it seems like the best investment we can make for our future.

Although work has been the biggest change in my life it hasn’t been the most eventful. April 26th is Maggie’s birthday and I suggested we fly down to LA that day which happened to be a Saturday, check into a hotel, have a nice dinner and then go see Pink Floyd at the LA Sports Arena. Then on Sunday we could visit our families. Since my family lives in North Hollywood and Maggie’s in Santa Monica, we could make both stops, visit with our parents and still get back to LAX for our flight home Sunday night.

It sounded like a fun weekend, but I left out a few details. First, we weren’t visiting both families on Sunday. Although I said her folks would be our second stop it was our only stop. I spoke with her parents and mine a month before and set up a surprise birthday
party for her at 1:00 pm on Sunday. Since her actual birthday was the day before I didn’t think she’d expect a party, especially not a surprise party, the next day. Her parents helped me with a guest list and I added a dozen other names. Oh, there was one other little surprise, our engagement. Maggie and I constantly talked about getting married when the time was right. Well, I thought the time was right, and her surprise birthday party seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Sometimes I really appreciate tradition and a week before her birthday, while Maggie thought I was at work, I flew down to LA and met with her parents to ask for their blessing to marry their daughter. Not surprisingly, they had an idea I wasn’t there just to discuss the party arrangements and proudly gave me their blessing. I called my parents with the news from the airport just before my flight took off.

One of the guys from the office recommended a jeweler and I picked out a ring in about twenty minutes. Maggie is so unpretentious I knew she’d appreciate anything I gave her but since this was the only engagement ring I’m ever going to buy, it was time to splurge. I did my best not to give anything away the week before the party and even came home from work at 6:30 one night so we could do a little shopping and Maggie could pick out something new to wear for the weekend. I like to think I know a little something about women.

The weekend was a smash hit and a double surprise for Maggie. She was totally unaware of what awaited her as we walked into her parent’s house. The expression
on her face, when fifty guests jumped out from everywhere and yelled “surprise,” was wonderful. About an hour later I grabbed a half filled champagne glass and tapped it with a spoon to make a toast. I asked Maggie to join me where everyone could see us and I proceeded to toast her birthday. Then in the middle of my toast I knelt to one knee, pulled out the ring from my pocket and asked Maggie to marry me. I’m not sure who started to cry first. All I remember is her shaking her head up and down and saying yes, yes, yes. Now we really had something to celebrate. There was a wonderful moment a little later on when Maggie and I were joined by both sets of parents. They told us how proud they were of us and the responsible adults we’d become and we told them how blessed and thankful we were to have them as parents. Moments in life don’t get any better.