Unbeatable: The Legend of Vincent Scott – Chapter 5: The Ascent & the Avalanche
By the spring of 2006, Vincent Scott stood like a conductor at the center of a rising symphony, orchestrating what felt like his magnum opus: the rapid rise of the ABM Online Division. The hiring boom gave him power, control, and a chance to build something from the ground up.
Though Derek Walters still sat at the top of the food chain, it was Vincent who decided who stayed and who went. He also had the pick of the litter of his top reps from his old office, who left that sinking ship to flock to Vincent as quickly as they could.
One particular new hire stood out: On April 11, Vincent met and hired Autumn Westwood for the class starting April 24. He noticed her immediately—young, striking, full of life and potential. She was dangerously charismatic, and Vincent felt a strong flutter of attraction. He had not been in a serious relationship since Julie in 2002, and though Autumn would not report in Vincent’s hierarchy, their subsequent mostly under-the-radar dating would still have been frowned upon by powers that be.
On Mother’s Day, he’d made a quick trip to Mankato to surprise his parents Kay and Vince Jr., bringing his mother gifts and taking her to lunch. But on the way back, his phone rang. It was his mother.
“Vincent? It’s your Dad. He had a heart attack.”
Vincent turned around and headed straight to the Mankato hospital. A stent was being put in. The timing had saved him. It could have ended differently. Too easily.
Vincent held his father’s hand. “I love you, Pops.”
The hospital became his world for three days. Hundreds poured in to see the legendary Vince Jr.—former water softener manager, golf board member, community pillar. Vincent sat by his mother, watched his father grow thinner, quieter, more fragile. Then came the triple bypass.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis called him back.
Vincent returned to a team that thrived because of him. Nicknames from superheroes, airhorns, email blasts with sales announcements. His floor was electric. Loud. Fearless. Vincent made work feel like an arcade: a place of battle, fun, and glory. The team produced numbers that astounded.
When Derek was summoned by the field office, the opportunity came knocking. Most managers ducked. Vincent leapt. He owned sales tracking, direct mail campaigns, labor meetings, mentoring programs, everything. He made himself indispensable. Keith Dickhauser started bringing him to lunch, talking about the company’s future—and Vincent’s.
He assumed the position and jumped in to do whatever he could to support leadership.
As others noticed, they clung to him like groupies. Training classmates like Chad, Jimmy, Sahim—and Autumn—followed him to lunch, to happy hours, to bars like Finley’s. Booze flowed, bravado swelled, egos flared. It was intoxicating.
By October, his team was nearly 300% to goal.
Times were high for a change after the health scare of his father subsided. Vincent was on top of his game in all areas—the sales arena was his, he was dating a beautiful girl and his star was on the rise. He knew he had to lap up all the success because it is always only a matter of time before the bottom falls out.
Saturday morning, December 30, he was playing video games on a week where the office was closed for the holidays. His cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Vincent?” Autumn said with an odd tone in her voice.
“Yes?”
“I have something I need to tell you.”
“Okay…” There was a pause.
“I’m pregnant.”
Vincent’s professional life and his bachelor ways flashed before his eyes.
The end of 2006 was unforgettable.
Vincent Scott closed the year as a bewildered father-to-be and at 233% to objective—a performance so dominant it shocked even his harshest critics into silence.
But celebration was short-lived. With the arrival of 2007 came a grueling 60% hike in targets and the gut-punching news that Vincent was losing his top five reps to a newly formed inbound team.
The sting wasn’t just the loss. It was who got them. Mark Rogers—who had finished at 87% to goal the year prior, a full 146 points behind Vincent—was handed the high-potential squad along with Danny Boyd. Dickhauser claimed it was due to their systems expertise. But everyone knew the truth: Mark was Keith’s golden boy. Favoritism wasn’t just alive—it was institutional.
Vincent felt the injustice in his bones. But he didn’t retreat. That wasn’t his style. He had never used excuses. While other managers folded and rationalized failure with vacations, turnover, and lack of new blood, Vincent remained unshakable. Even when knocked down, he clawed his way back to the top the only way he knew how. Back to basics, relentless fundamentals, hard work and flat-out execution.
Yet under the surface, emotions spiraled. Was Autumn the one? Was he ready? Could this derail his career? Keith Dickhauser had been really clear he did not want Vincent fraternizing with the salesforce and he had now committed the cardinal sin.
As February arrived, expansion plans for the organization accelerated. The team was outgrowing the 11th floor in the downtown ABM citadel, and Derek was tapped to lead a sister center. Keith would interview for his replacement.
This was his shot.
He prepared obsessively: charts, schedules, management tactics, ideas to uplift the entire division. He printed documents. Created presentations. Delivered confident strategy. Betterment committees, new reports, leadership methods—all part of his pitch. He nailed it.
Vincent and Autumn decided she would quietly leave the company to pursue her medical degree so she would not end up in an eventual Vincent Scott employee hierarchy, and her sacrifice helped him tremendously on the path to stardom.
After years of clawing, bleeding, and battling against the tides, Vincent Scott had his empire.
One year to the day since his arrival, Vincent had ascended.
As the year progressed, he took on more and more. There were unexpected challenges with the Vincent-Autumn relationship regarding finances and insurance and they hit troubled times.
Then came the anxiety for Vincent. Panic attacks while driving.
Keith piled on. Screamed about rep cubicles and paperwork. Blamed Vincent for manager and sales rep missteps. Accused him of ruining the department’s foundation. Yet Vincent was doubling revenue. Launching new processes. Coaching reps. Innovating daily. He was holding the weight of the business on his back. The business was dramatically climbing but Keith was an obsessive micromanager who belonged in the 1980’s.
Vincent Scott—a man who had willed himself to victory time and time again—was nearing his breaking point.
He had climbed. He had conquered. Now, he was beginning to drown.
On Monday, August 27, Vincent began a long-awaited week of vacation. Autumn was due to deliver that Wednesday. But, as fate would have it, she had plans of her own.
That morning, Vincent and Autumn were awakened by a gentle nudge and a sentence that would forever change their lives.
“I think it’s baby time,” Autumn whispered, eyes wide with equal parts excitement and uncertainty.
Vincent, still half-asleep, blinked. “For real?”
“I think so,” Autumn said. “The contractions feel like what they described. They’re about ten minutes apart.”
Vincent nodded and sprang into action. “Then let’s go. If it’s not the baby, they’ll tell us. But we’re not risking anything.”
They grabbed the hospital bag and climbed into Vincent’s Accord, speeding toward the hospital. Initial tests around 7:30 AM showed that Autumn wasn’t yet dilated enough, so they were instructed to walk the parking lot. After a lap or two and an uptick in contractions, she was admitted by 9:00 AM.
At 7:51 PM, Elizabeth Marie Scott entered the world—7 pounds, 20 inches long, with soft blondish-red hair that mirrored Vincent’s baby photos. His parents, Vince Jr. and Kay, teared up upon seeing her. She was breathtaking.
Seeing her smile, hearing her laugh, holding her in his arms—that was oxygen for Vincent. That was life.
While becoming a Dad was the best thing that had ever happened to Vincent, it was only a matter of months before Vincent and Autumn called it quits. Unfortunately, the split was not amicable, and they lawyered up.
Vincent dealt with the catastrophe in unhealthy ways. When he had Elizabeth 50% of the time, he was Super-Dad and 100% devoted to her. But when he didn’t, he was at the casino, partying and doing everything he could to drown out his sorrows.
He fell in with partying with his managers and reps as well because he was a workaholic, and this did nothing to help his reputation with senior leadership. Furthermore, most of the people who became magnets to Vincent only wanted him to promote and favor them.
He would face the heat from upper management about the fratboy image of the leadership team and he would own it while giving uplifting, accountable speeches to his team. But behind the curtain, Vincent was breaking down. That afternoon, he closed his office blinds, sat breathless, and cried for the first time in years. He had reached his physical and emotional limit.
Keith Dickhauser’s tyranny continued. When Hurricane Ike ravaged Houston and Vincent diverted reps from harassing business owners, Keith exploded. Vincent stood up to him, was screamed at and cursed out by this pathetic excuse for a leader.
Vincent didn’t back down. He rallied the floor, sent the email explaining they were calling into disaster zones per leadership orders, and braced for the fallout.
From late 2008 into 2009, he was still the backbone of the department. But Keith, true to form, became more insidious. He conspired with legacy district managers, sending Vincent’s team useless leads as a favor to people who owed him, costing the company revenue but securing political capital. The department was proven to be short-changing the sales reps’ commissions and not doing anything to fix the broken processes. And on the horizon was a huge showdown and seismic event that would forever shape Vincent Scott.
