The hardest thing about falling on purpose is convincing everyone you didn’t jump.
I begin with something small.
A deal I could easily salvage. A subsidiary that’s profitable but not essential. I delay a signature by forty-eight hours—long enough for uncertainty to creep in, not long enough to trigger alarms.
The market responds exactly as expected.
A dip. Speculation. Analysts sharpening their language.
My board calls an emergency session.
“You’re hesitating,” one of them says carefully, like he’s handling something fragile. “That’s not like you.”
“I’m reassessing,” I reply calmly.
Reassessment is respectable. Hesitation is not.
I choose my words carefully. “The landscape is shifting.”
They exchange looks.
Good.
Let them feel it.
***
The second loss is louder.
I pull out of
