Behind the Story: Chapter 15 — The Show Pony

“We didn't need conference rooms to conduct business. We had Moutai.”

Five dinners a week. Endless toasts. Seating arrangements nobody explained. Cigarettes, status symbols, and a glass that had to be lowered just so.

I was learning to read a room where almost everything meant something—even when nobody bothered to tell me what it meant.

And somewhere between the drinking, the business, and the performance, I was beginning to realize that learning how to play a role convincingly wasn't the same thing as becoming the person everyone expected me to be.