Freddy Dammé, in her final contribution to Concourse after nearly four years with the magazine, gives graduates a hypothetical boss – and tells them not to be like them. Find yourself, then follow your dreams.

The Boss is getting tired. He is approaching his fifties now and work rests heavy on his shoulders. The Boss has done well. He has his own business. It is successful but the Boss doesn’t like people very much. No, actually, that’s not true. The Boss doesn’t like poor people. People on benefits, people who eat crisps all day long, people who have no money they can give to him. The Boss likes footballers, hedge fond managers and property tycoons. He likes rich Chinese students who drive Masseratis and have “more money than God”. “Money is everything”, says the Boss. “Money is the gift that keeps on giving”, claims the Boss.

The Boss didn’t have much money as a child, growing up in a council house on the outskirts of a wealthy town. The Boss saw them every day; the rich, the wealthy and he knew that money is everything. But the Boss is happy now, so he says. He has got Armani glasses and he feels that he can see clearly.

The Boss isn’t married, naturally. He doesn’t like sharing very much but he wouldn’t mind if a love interest wanted to share with him.

The Boss is a proud man. He is proud of his Window 7 PCs. He says “technology is the way of bringing the business forward”. The boss says “do not be fooled by that Scanner, that’s one fine piece of equipment but don’t touch the screen”. That scanner, his pride and joy, was 1200 pounds.

The Boss doesn’t like working very much. That’s probably why he does so little. The Boss doesn’t want to speak to people on the phone. He says they interrupted him. The Boss likes jokes and he is a funny man, so he says. His staff laugh at his jokes. It’s a tough economic climate.

The Boss has a nice house but he hates the area it is in. Most of the time it’s empty. The Boss has no friends in this area. The Boss has wealthy and famous friends everywhere. He has friends in Canary Wharf who take him to lunch in the gurkun. The Boss has friends in Australia and they name Radio shows after him, so he says. The Boss has a three-legged cat who suffers from cancer. The Boss jokes that it’s lucky he didn’t name him ‘Lucky’. The Boss calls the cat ‘little shit’ but the Boss loves him dearly. The Boss gets tired sometimes. He would like to go to America where money grows on trees and the streets are paved with gold. But the Boss is here and he sighs as he looks at the Manhattan Skyline. It’s a picture in his office, nothing more.

Follow your dreams, not the things you think are your dreams – if you haven’t found them, you are young and life is a learning curve. Don’t do something because your parents want you to do it. Live life, enjoy life, be the boss of your own destiny but don’t forget the things that matter or the people who are important. As one of our star writers here at Concourse would say, choose to live a life that matters.

Freddy Dammé
(Concourse “Boss” 2011/12)

This article has been reproduced the Deputy-Editor Design from Concourse 2011/12. The original author is created above.