Center City: A Novel

By Bobby Richardson

Marvin Robinson and his brother, Carlton Robinson, take great pride in having become successful industrial businessmen despite the many discouraging obstacles they had to overcome. Neither of the brothers was particularly gifted athletically or academically. Without financial support from parents who held only powerless positions in Philadelphias lower-class culture, the brothers seemed predestined to remain contained within its social limitations.

Although genetic motivation to work hard for what you want was a Robinson family trait that went back for generations, it often went depressed in early life. Nevertheless, once their ambition is sparked, goals blaze and must be quenched to satisfaction.

This is the continuing story of two typical inner-city brothers, and explores how they triumph over and interact with the complexities of a rapidly changing society that challenge them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781546214021

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© 2017 Bobby Richardson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/25/2017

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1403-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-1402-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Prologue

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

Finale

Prologue

M arvin Robinson and his brother Carlton Robinson, take great pride in having become successful industrial businessmen, despite the many discouraging obstacles they had to overcome. Neither of the brothers was particularly gifted athletically, or academically. Without financial support from parents, who held only powerless positions in Philadelphia’s lower-class culture, the brothers seemed predestined to remain contained within its social limitations.

Although genetic motivation to work hard for what you want was a Robinson family trait that went back for generations, it often went depressed in early life. Nevertheless, once their ambition is sparked, goals blaze and must be quenched to satisfaction.

This is the continuing story is of two typical inner-city brothers, and explores, how they triumphed over and interacted with the complexities of a rapidly changing society that challenged them.

Bobby Richardson Books

1

Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 9;00 pm

M arvin Robinson was on his cell phone talking to a delivery company about his custom-made leather executive chair that had not been delivered on time. As the heated conversation was going on, other delivery people were quite busy delivering their office furniture orders. Coffee and pastry delivery people narrowly avoided collisions with office equipment delivery people. At times there were more than two dozen people shuffling in and out of the relatively small three-story office building Marvin had recently bought. It was located just off of Market Street in center-city Philadelphia.

As telephone technicians and flower delivery people navigated their way around each other, the flowers from well-wishers had to be stored in the closets and executive bathroom. Since Marvin’s receptionist did not have a working phone to use she had to use her personal cell phone to re-schedule the appointments for the week. Without his complete set of office furniture Marvin had no choice but to transact his new company’s telephone business standing on his feet and yelling to be heard over loud hammering, drilling, and the vulgar language by union workers.

This was certainly not how Marvin had envisioned his first day as owner of his new advertising agency, named Marvin Robinson & Associates would be running. It was a long way from the well-oiled machine he thought he would step into when he ordered all the elaborate work that had to be done to give a face-lift to what had been a humdrum real estate office.

His priority was that first and foremost, the office had to reflect his architectural taste and high-tech metropolitan style. His office’s ambience itself was designed to be an active selling tool for its owner. It’s objective was customer comfort, flexibility, and service, with plenty of accent lighting, glass, polished metals, exotic woods and plush rugs for warmth. Every detail was selected to speak to clients so that it was clear that Marvin Robinson & Associates was a first-class operation with refined style and taste. Marvin would personally make sure clients understood that his company was not only modern and contemporary, but all business.

Most of the office space was complete to his satisfaction but Marvin Robinson was clearly not a man who put up with missed deadlines that wasted his time. Although he was visibly agitated, he remained composed enough to not cause a work-stoppage by unionized Prima Donnas as he called them. Newly arriving employees only added congestion to the work in progress. So Marvin decided to gathers his fresh employees, as they greeted each other among the chaos, and they all headed for a corner café for a brief /meeting. Only his cheerful receptionist Janice Smith would remain behind to manage the phone calls.

Once they arrive at the café its manager joins three tables together so that the group could sit together, and Marvin casually took charge.

Alright guys he began," once again I want to apologize for the chaos at the office, don’t worry, you will be paid for coming to work today, and for tomorrow because you don’t have to come in tomorrow. I want to let them have the time and space to do what they have to do in order to finish their work. They will be finished by day-after-tomorrow, for sure, and then we’ll have our little Grand Opening Party. And all those assembled were quickly filled with anticipation.

Jennifer how’s the catering situation? Marvin asks his executive assistant, Jennifer Allen.

"Just fine! They’re all set and ready to go. And there’s no problems with any of your special requests she reports.

Good! How about the band? Has Steve confirmed that he’s going to be able to make it?

Yes, he has confirmed already.

Good! He puts on a great show. You guys are going to be knocked out by how talented this guy is. He played with Stevie Wonder for five years! I can’t wait for ya’ll to check him out. Now, how about that other band we booked for the dancing?

Confirmed was her one word answer.

Good! Has the security company been contacted? Marvin asks next.

"Yes, security has been contracted, all the invitations have been mailed, and the press releases have been mailed, the Mayor and the Governor has confirmed and everything is set. Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of the party. Find other things to worry about" she said confidently.

Okay Jen, I just want everything to be perfect. I’m depending on you. And I’m depending on you too Gabriel, Marvin says as he turns his attention to Gabriel Cassells, his new Account Executive and long-time personal friend. Are you going to be ready to hit the ground running on Wednesday?"

Yes, sir! Absolutely! Gabriel answered with assurance in his voice. Marvin expected no less than self-confidence to come from Gabriel because Gabe was one of the most confident people he ever met in his life. He was a military veteran and a former English and French Languish Teacher who has traveled the world and developed a supernaturally pleasant personality. His diction dazzles his listeners and charms them in an instant. Gabe always believed he and Marvin made a great combination and when Marvin mentioned he was going into business for himself, well, Gabriel jumped at the opportunity to exercise his persuasion skills on a commercial level. Marvin felt he could not imagine a more perfect salesman than the immaculate Gabriel Cassells.

"Alright then in that case let’s just eat and forget about business for today. We’ll have plenty of time for that on Thursday. Let’s order some food…it’s on me, so relax, I got you. I just want to take a few minutes to first of all answer any questions anyone may have at this time. Go right ahead and ask me now." Marvin says as he began to read his menu.

Lona Connors was Gabriel’s female counter-part, as Account Executive for the agency’s sales team. She was certainly a beautiful longhaired young lady. Marvin hired her because he felt strongly that her physical beauty alone would make her a very persuasive salesperson. Lona was also very ambitious, self-motivated, energetic, and money-driven almost to the point of greedy.

His other salesperson was named Angela (Angel) Moore. She was also a longhaired attractive beauty with special training and special interest in real estate sales. Marvin being the perceptive people-reader he prided himself on being felt that with the proper training and leadership, those three could bring in a lot of sales for the company. So Marvin looked over at his sales team and was more excited than ever that under hand-picked Sales Director, Bill Waterman’s, training they could out-compete any sales team in the city. So, now the time was ripe to make a statement to the group.

"The first thing, I want to say to you all is that I consider us as a team. I consider us as, Team Marvin Robinson & Associates" But what I need you all to be clear about is this: a team is only as strong as its weakest teammate. I want you all to be successful and contribute mightily to this company’s team, but I can’t guarantee that you will be successful because only you can determine that. I can only guarantee you that I will treat you all with respect and dignity and make sure that your checks will be delivered on time. I’ll see to that. Don’t worry about that. However, in return, I must insist that all of you make a determined effort to treat each other with respect and dignity. Nothing will get you replaced quicker in this company than to bring negative vibes to this company, because my experience has been that in an office that must create art and creative ideas, there can be no negative vibes. We need to be very clear about that right now. And also that, in the unfortunate event that I have to replace any of you, it will not be personal, but because I was disappointed in the results you brought forth. You all need to be absolutely clear about what we have come together to do, and that is one thing and one thing only: to make this company as much money as possible. I want each and every one of you to consider yourself, from this day forth, as a "money making machine" for this company. That’s what I am hiring you to be. You are hired to be a moneymaker. You are paid to make money for this company. Your responsibility is to make money for this company. And if you are found to not be able to make money for this company…well, you can expect to be replaced. But don/t take that the wrong way. I don’t want that to happen. I have hand-picked each one of you because I like you, and want all of us to have successful careers—but I can’t do your job for you. I need results and results only. No excuses. I know you are all smart and talented people or you would not be at this table today. This job is challenging, I know, but you will be responsible to meet whatever challenge you run into and find a way to overcome it…by any ethical means necessary. I will not even listen to any excuses. It is physically impossible for me to run this company by myself. I can’t answer the phones, service our clients, and run around and do everything it’s going to take to make this company a success. I need your results. Because I can’t emphasize enough that I am not going to tolerate excuses. I am not willing to pay for excuses. What I am willing to pay for is: effective and efficient results in each and every position in this company.

"And you may as well know right now that I will be monitoring everyone with the eyes of an eagle. So please don’t let me down by being reckless with your behavior, and don’t be disrespectful to anyone in this company, or in any way jeopardize the integrity of this company. I have invested too much of my hard earned money in this company to let anyone bring it down. But as long as you continue to be employed here, I will personally see to it that you will be paid on time, your bonuses will fair, and GOD willing, we will all have a lot of fun as we work hard. Okay?"

They all answered in the affirmative.

"And as an example of what I mean by fun, here’s a little something for each of you." Marvin says, as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a hand full of crispy one hundred dollar bills and distributes one to each person at his table.

"This is my way of saying to you guys, Welcome to Marvin Robinson & Associates! I hope this little token of appreciation gets us off on the