Page 64 - Like No Business I Know

Beige

effect, as I mentioned, is impermanent if the person does not change
habits. Some do, but most find it easier to pay their membership and
spend a few hours a month in a painless, effortless regimen, passively
transforming their subjective experience of time from a chaotic
burden to a neutral background of events, a necessary component of
life of no inherent consequence. That detachment, achievable
historically by anchorites and hermits after lengthy periods of self-
depriving meditation, is, in comparison to the condition in which the
member enters the club, a state of euphoria. Sid’s training includes
guidelines on that potentially uncontrollable phenomenon, as well. It
cannot always be predicted how a member will be affected on the
first session, and it may be necessary to encourage those undergoing
a profound release from their symptoms to spend a few minutes with
a Beige counselor or at least to wait a few minutes in the lounge
before leaving the club. In any event, as no medical treatment has
taken place, you are not responsible for anything a member does
outside the club.”
“This final slide shows return on investment based on the
performance of the fourth and fifth Beige clubs. As you can see, the
risk is shared by us for the first three years while you become
profitable. From that point forward, as our involvement decreases to
standard maintenance, your percentage of retained net income
increases. You will perform due diligence in determining the
suitability for you of obtaining a Beige franchise; we will do no less.
Neither party would wish for anything but success, and failure could
have consequences for the entire operation. Now that you have seen
the upside benefit, you may wonder about long-term risk. We have
nothing to hide. Sid has hired experts to analyze the Beige operation
and its results. Their reports are open to inspection to qualified and
serious buyers. In their opinion, generally stated, we have a head start
in dealing with TD, and it will take an entirely different approach to
create anything competitive. Such breakthroughs do occur in science,
so no guarantees are possible.”
“In the spirit of full disclosure I have one other mild warning
before we break for Q-and-A: I alluded earlier to traditional
techniques found in many religions for breaking the tyranny of
subjective time. It appears that a certain percentage of humanity is
hardwired to become addicted to such practices and the stimulation it

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