In a fancy restaurant, the kind where prices were inversely proportional to illumination, Charlie always knew what to order, even when the menu was in French and even when the lighting level made it impossible to read the delicate script that blended so nicely into the textured paper.

What's more, he had an enviable command of propriety. Charlie always knew which fork to use; he never used the soup spoon for dessert or the fish knife to butter his bread.

He knew all about wine and, with only slight provocation, would launch into a monologue about the bouquet, aroma, body and nose of a particular bottle. When he pointed to a wine in one of those multipage, leather-bound wine menus, his wisdom was always confirmed by the sommelier, who invariably responded with "A fine selection, monsieur." And with barely a glance, Charlie could distinguish red from white.

His level of certainty applied to his attire, too. From his carefully arranged hairpiece and perfectly knotted necktie down to his spotless shoelaces, everything perfectly replicated what Charlie had observed in a recent fashion magazine.

Back at the shop, too, he demonstrated his towering ability to make far-reaching engineering decisions without the time-consuming evaluations of competing technologies and competing vendors that slowed the work of his engineers. And because he knew intuitively what customers needed and wanted, he saw no need to conduct focus groups to learn what customers, themselves, felt they needed.

If customers tended to buy a competitor's product, Charlie felt, it was because his salespeople weren't doing their jobs properly, or his advertising and public relations people weren't conveying the right message or weren't conveying it effectively. He would have to lecture them again to provide the proper inspiration and guidance so that they could educate the customers.

Alas, what with managing the engineering department, managing sales and marketing, as well as managing production and finance, Charlie often couldn't get around to staffing problems, though they were a growing concern. Apparently lacking the sophistication to appreciate his advanced leadership, engineers, as well as key people serving other functions, tended to leave the company shortly after joining.

Charlie understood that this was a matter of human nature.

People were always seeking greener pastures without understanding the merits of stability.