Downfall of a Dot-comer.

The names have been changed to protect the embarrassed.

Jason was relatively happy. He headed up the advertising and communication efforts for an industrial parts manufacturer; let's call it Market Niche Inc. or MNI. They had a large factory with several distribution centers throughout the U.S. His job was to develop the company catalog with some 5,000 items, do the corporate brochures, produce product flyers and develop the corporate web site.

Although Jason, at 30, was one of the youngest people there, he made a good salary. The company was profitable and he looked forward to an annual bonus. He had been there almost five years.

Jason had heard about the Internet; people were getting rich. Then a graphics friend called, an Internet start up; let's call it Everything For Industry dot-coin or Everything.Com. It was setting up a buyers' network. They needed people with his background and credibility.

He feigned illness one day to go see the company. They had bought an old warehouse south of Market in San Francisco, gutted it and filled it with people. All were younger than he, working away on computers. He saw a guy make a paper airplane and send it zipping across the room.

"Isn't this great?" his friend said. "The boss wants to see you. You're going to get an offer. It's a great place to work. The pop is free."

He went in to see the boss. They were the same age. "We need people with your talent and experience. know what you did at MNI. We need that here. We'll match your salary, give you a $15,000 signing bonus and 10,000 stock options. We will soon have our IPO. You can exercise them in three years. We want you to stay. The stock is to open at 20, but it could triple by the time you cash in. Oh, I almost forgot. We'll lease you a BMW. And as you saw, the pop is free."

Jason thought.

"Good deal, huh? Look, companies like MNI are dinosaurs. Get out of there before we bury it. You know it. What do you say?"

"Let's go," said Jason.

"Great. Sign all the papers before you leave and give me a quick bio. We want

to announce your joining immediately."

Jason liked his old boss and told him right away. The more he thought about where he worked, he saw that Everything.com was better. His old boss even drove an Oldsmobile, and GM just declared it obsolete.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" his old boss asked.

"Yes."

"OK. Clean out your desk now. I don't want anyone here who doesn't want to be here. I never believed in that two-week notice stuff. Remember, if you leave, you can't come back."

Jason was getting angry. Who is he to threaten me? He wanted to tell him about the car, not to mention the stock options. The pop -- at MNI you had to pay and the proceeds paid for the company picnic. Heck, Internet rules! He would be a millionaire at the age of 30.

He picked up the BMW the next day and was proud when he saw his new company's billboards along 101 by the airport. He hadn't noticed them before. He remembered his old boss calling them "frivolous."

It was his first day at the office: He quickly saw that rather than being the youngest at MNI, he was now one of the oldest at Everything.com. His new job was to be the senior advisor to the director of marketing. He didn't have any authority, but his advice would be sought after. Everything.com was going to be the source for all industrial parts but would not have any warehouses. "We're a Net, not a rust-belt company," the new marketing director told him. "Warehouses are a waste. We buy from existing suppliers. They waste their money on warehouses. We spent a couple million so far on our web site, It works in 14 languages."

Jason walked over to operations. He saw that they were taking orders for New York firms and filling them from California companies. And then they were sending them via two-day FedEx. "Why are we doing this?" Jason asked. He noticed this was the first time he had used "we." The head of operations told him "We are building market share." He remembered his boss at MNI telling him that to get rich you need to buy low and sell high. Here they were buying high and selling low.

Then something else struck him. He saw that half the communication budget was going for double-page spreads in Red Herring, Upside, Industry Standard and Business 2.0. They had 15 billboards on various spots along the 101 freeway and even posters inside airport jetways.

"Who are we trying to reach?" he asked. The marketing director told him. "The venture capitalist. We are going to be needing more money."

"I understand that," Jason said, "But what about brochures, catalogs?"

"The Net's the future," came the response. "Forget about paper."

It must be so, for whenever he looked over at the president's office, it was filled with venture capitalists and attorneys, not customers as at MNI. He saw that the company made a big deal about his having come from MNI, but was surprised no one asked him any commercial questions about customers or competitor strategy. A young aide said, "We'll make a new set of rules for this industry."

It was 6:00 and he was tired. He wanted to go home. He started to smell a lot of pizza. Domino's was making deliveries. The marketing director looked over at him, "We're just getting started -- most of us will stay until 9:30."

This went on for three months. Then one day when Jason walked into the office, he noticed a change in mood. He asked one of the young programmers, "Why so gloomy?"

"They cancelled the employee gym." He remembered being told when they hired him that they were going to build an on-site gym and child day-care center for the employees. No charge. The marketing director walked into his office and handed Jason a bunch of messages. They were from a number of accounting departments of magazines.

"Please call these folks and let them know we're working on getting them paid."

"How long will it be?" Jason asked. "Make something up," he was told.

He started to get more nervous each day. The IP0 was delayed. And then delayed again. But the boss had a meeting to tell everyone everything was cool. The market didn't really understand what they were doing.

Then one Monday Jason came in and was told to go to the marketing director's office. "What's up?" he asked cheerfully?

"We're shutting down the marketing department. We have to let you go. Give me the keys to the car."

He didn't know what to say. "What about severance?"

"Are you kidding? -- you just joined the company."

"But I left a good job to come here." The marketing director wasn't listening. It was over.

This was unbelievable. Jason had gone from a secure job to the street in less than three months. They even took the car away so he had to call his wife to pick him up. He, like most of the other drivers on the highway, paid little attention to billboards as he drove home.

The next morning he swallowed his pride and called his old boss at MNI. He told him what had happened.

"I want my old job back."

"That's impossible; we hired someone." There was a pause. "I don't usually do this, but there is a job in your old department." Jason's hopes rose. "What is it?"

"We need an errand runner.

John Freivalds is principal, jfa, Minneapolis, Minn.