Payton sat in the middle of his entrepreneurship class daydreaming about how he could become the next CEO featured in Forbes. Sipping up the drool as his professor concluded that day’s lecture, Payton gathered his stuff and beelined for the exit. Catching up with a few of his classmates as they headed towards the student union, Payton announced how he was going to follow in his father’s footsteps and start his own multibillion dollar corporation by the time he was thirty, his words dripping with pride.
Accustomed to his claims, his classmates rolled their eyes as they quickly dispelled Payton’s dreams. “Pay, you cannot be serious. You are the bottom of the class, scraping by to barely graduate this year. We want you to do well, but you must face the music. You are an average businessman who is not capable of competing on Wall Street. You don’t even have a job yet! Also, you say that your father is the CEO of Sun Corporation, but we’ve never seen you interact with him. Once again, we want to call your bluff; drop the facade and drop the dreams. We’ve seen you with your father, who runs a local coffee shop, which is not exactly the multimillion dollar company about which you frequently boast.”
“Guys, seriously? I’ve told you a million times that Mer’s Mocha is owned by my step-father” Payton rebuttled, “my real father is the CEO of Sun Corp. Just you all wait, I will prove every single one of you wrong and create the most successful business you’ve ever seen.”
The truth is, Payton had never met his real father, if that even was the truth. He did live with his mother, Clemmy, and step-father Merop; it was the only life he had ever known. He called his mother later that evening and questioned her legitimacy about his birth father. Fed up with his inability to accept her story as truth, she counseled him to go visit his father at Sun Corp.
Determination in tow, Payton booked a ticket to Chicago and went straight to the Sears tower where Sun Corporation is headquartered. After annoying the secretary, he was given the favor to at least speak to his father’s assistant. After pleading with the assistant to at least check the authenticity of his story with his father, Payton was told to wait outside of the top floor corner office.
The doors opened wildly and a man tall in stature with thick golden hair exclaimed, “Payton! My son, I thought I would never see you again! What brings you here? How did you find me?” Fas, short for Phoebus, is his name; he started Sun Corporation from the ground up and has been named the most successful CEO in Chicago.
“I came here to find out if it was true- that you really are my father. I am studying business at Harvard, and had to find out if it was in my blood,” replied Payton.
“Oh Payton, yes it is absolutely true. I want to help you! In fact, anything you need my help with you just let me know and I promise I will do everything in my power to make it come to fruition,” said Fas.
“I want to run my own branch of Sun corporation in New York. I want to be the CEO of that branch and prove to my classmates that I am successful and powerful,” demanded Payton.
Fas’s face fell. Everything but that. It wasn’t that he didn’t want the best for his son or worried about the wellbeing of his company, rather, that he didn’t see the qualities in Payton that are necessary to run a giant corporation. Payton needed to grow and mature, and learn the business for a while before taking on such a daunting task. He explained this to Payton, but it’s as if he was talking to a brick wall. Never had he regretted a promise so much.
“Son, you need to grow more, learn the business a little bit. Right now, you wouldn’t succeed easily. There are too many other businesses out there gunning for you to fail! Because I made a promise, I will do this for you. But I truly advise you to not choose this path. I don’t want your career to be ruined before it even starts!” Fas admonished.
A man of his word, Fas set up a branch of Sun Corp. to launch in New York starting in May when Payton graduated. Payton was to be the CEO and operate this branch as an independent branch of the company. The fate of Payton’s career was in his own hands now.
(In honor of my recent trip to Chicago) The city of Chicago as seen from the Navy Pier at sunset. Self-photographed on January 19, 2015.
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Author's Note: This is a retelling of Phaethon and the Sun from Ovid's Metamorphoses Unit (books 1-4) and translated into English by Tony Kline in 2000. The original story is based on Sun, the immortal god of the sun, reuniting with his son, Phaethon, for the first time since he was born. Phaethon wants to prove to his classmates that he was born of a god. Upon reuniting, Sun grants Phaethon one wish. Phaethon wishes to drive Sun's chariot of fire for one day, but Sun admonishes Phaethon to pick something else. In the following story, we see how Phaethon is not ready for such power. This story, however, ends on a note of impending destruction. I chose to put this in a business-like setting because it seems to be easily correlated to Phaethon and the Sun.
Right off the bat, I could tell what story you were trying to tell without even seeing the Author's Note. I read this story for one of my reading diaries and I could automatically see the similarities between the two! But then adding the fact he was a student in college, with his major and wanting to hang out with his friends and everything, that was a great idea to bring the story into the present day.
ReplyDeleteThis was great Avery! I found myself rooting for Payton and getting frustrated that know one believed in him! I loved that you made it a college student too, super relatable! We all have such big dreams it's just up to us to follow them!
ReplyDeleteI loved the way to told this story, and how you brought it into the present day. I just wish you had used your character's name in the title rather than the character from Ovid. I am still confused as to who Phaeton is in relation to Payton.
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