him, he was hardly ever available. I mostly heard the same excuse from his executive assistant, “I’m sorry, Mr. Franklin, Mr. Mantle will not be able to join you for golf this week due to an emergency that has come up on one of his cases. He does apologize.” The man pushed himself relentlessly and, over time, lost most of his friends along with his once sympathetic wife.
I honestly thought Julian had a deathwish or something. Not only did he work far too hard, he lived far too hard. He was well-known for his late-night visits to the city’s finest restaurants with sexy young fashion models and for his reckless drinking escapades with a rowdy band of cronies, which often ended up in fights that were splashed across the newspapers the next day. Despite his statements to the contrary, Julian Mantle was digging himself into an early grave. I knew it, the lawyers at his firm knew it and, deep within his soul, I think he knew it.
I watched Julian’s steady decline with a feeling of sadness. At the age of fifty-three, he looked as if he was in his late seventies. The constant stress and strain of his hard-driving lifestyle wreaked havoc on him physically, transforming his face into a mass of wrinkles. The late-night dinners in expensive French restaurants, smoking thick Cuban cigars and drinking cognac after cognac had left him embarrassingly overweight and he constantly complained that he was sick and tired of being sick and tired. Over time, he lost his once wicked sense of humor and rarely laughed. A time eventually came when he stopped playing golf, even though I knew he loved the sport as well as our outings together. With all the work on his plate, Julian even stopped calling me. I knew he needed my friendship as much as I welcomed his, but I guess he just didn’t care.
Then tragedy struck the Great Julian Mantle. One Monday morning, in the middle of the packed courtroom where Julian was arguing a case for one of his best corporate clients, Air Atlantic, he collapsed. Amid the frenzied screams of his paralegal and the clicking cameras of the media that were present, Julian was rushed to the hospital. On arrival, he was diagnosed as having suffered a massive heart attack and was rushed into the coronary care unit. The cardiologist said Julian was as close to death as any patient he had ever seen. But somehow he survived. The doctors said Julian was a fighter and seemed to have “a heroic will to live.”
That sad episode changed Julian profoundly. The very next day, he announced he was leaving the practice of law for good. I’d heard through the grapevine that Julian had headed off to India on some kind of expedition. He told one of his partners he “needed some answers” and hoped he would find them in that ancient land that had, over the centuries, gathered such great wisdom. In a striking act of closure, Julian had sold his mansion, his jet and his private island. However, it was his final gesture before departing that was his most unexpected: Julian sold the Ferrari that he loved so much.
My thoughts quickly returned to the young stranger in the monk’s robes, now standing in the center of my office, still smiling and still wearing the hood over a thick mop of brown hair. “How did you get this gold-plated golf ball?” I asked in a quiet tone. “I gave this to a dear friend of mine a few years ago as a gift for a very special birthday.”
“I know you did,” replied the visitor. “And he really appreciated your gesture.”
“And might I ask how you would know that?” I persisted.
“Because I’m the dear friend. I am Julian Mantle.”
CHAPTER THREE The Miraculous Transformation of a Corporate Warrior
I was astonished by what I had just heard. Could this young man in the peak of health really be Julian Mantle, a man who had fallen from the pinnacle of greatness as no one I have ever known? And if it was him, how could he possibly have undergone such a stunning change in appearance? I knew Julian had sold his mansion, his summer home and even given up his prized red Ferrari. I knew he’d given up the trappings of the corporate world and trekked off to the Himalayas on some fanatical mission to seek answers to the deep questions he was struggling with. But surely a simple visit to that ancient and mystical place could not have so profoundly transformed a man who had all but worked himself into the ground.
Disturbed by the bizarre scenario that had just unfolded before me, my mind began to race to some of the other possibilities. Perhaps this was a prank masterminded by one of my less-than-mature managers to inject a little levity into what was sure to be a tensionfilled week? Or maybe the young man was an infiltrator from a competitor seeking to get inside our operation to see how bad things really were? Perhaps this visitor in monk’s clothing was a deranged trespasser out to seriously harm me. But before I could examine these options more fully, the young man spoke.
“Peter, I know it’s hard for you to believe it’s really me. I’d feel exactly the same way if I were in your shoes. All I’m asking from you is a little faith, a little bit of belief in life’s small miracles. There’s a purpose to my visit.”
“And what might that be?” I asked, still not certain who was standing before me.
“Frankly, I’ve heard you are in big trouble and I’ve come to help. If what I’ve heard about GlobalView since my return from the Himalayas is true, you cannot afford not to listen to what I’ve come to tell you. I’ve discovered information that will return you and your business to the heights of success you once enjoyed. I’ve been given knowledge that will lead you to certain market leadership. I’ve learned lessons that will show you how to have the most loyal, dedicated and inspired employees of any company in your field. This information was given to me by a very learned teacher, who I met high in the mountains. The timeless wisdom he shared with me is not widely known here in the West. Yet it is so potent and so very profound that I am certain it will revolutionize your entire organization and do wonders for your bottom line.”
“Go on,” I replied, my curiosity piqued.
“The wisdom I’ve come to share with you is contained within a unique and extremely powerful system, a leadership blueprint of sorts. It’s actually foolproof. Follow the system and then just sit back and watch your company return to prime health. Well, actually, it’s designed to do far more than that. If you follow the formula with conviction, your business will be much more successful than it ever was. It will improve it in ways you never could have imagined. Morale and productivity will soar. Your people will be more committed and creative than you’ve ever seen them. They will be much more responsive and adaptive to change. Your team will start to work together again and deeply care about the work it is doing. And, to state the obvious, profits will go through the roof.”
“Okay. You’ve got my attention,” I responded. “But first let me ask you something. Assuming you are Julian, and that’s quite an assumption, why are you dressed like a monk? The Julian Mantle I knew wouldn’t be caught dead in anything less than Armani.”
“Fair question, my friend,” the young man replied with a mischievous grin, which I quickly realized looked very much like the one Julian was so well known for in his younger years. “Mind if I start my explanation at the beginning?”
“I’m all ears,” I replied, leaning back into my plush leather chair for what I sensed would be a good story.
The young man proceeded to relate, in minute detail, the rise and fall of the legendary Julian Mantle, from his days as a brilliant young student at Harvard Law School to his unparalleled success as a litigation lawyer handling some of the most complex corporate law cases in the country. He spoke candidly of his victories and also of his welldocumented decline. He talked about his dreams, his fears, his failed marriage and his heart attack. He even referred to the intricacies of my golf game and said that he sorely missed our fun-filled afternoons in the sun.
“They
