avery@well.UUCP (Avery Ray Colter) (10/20/89)
DIMENSIONS
Publication of the Fat-Admirers' Special Interest Group of NAAFA
Volume 6, Number 3 - September 1989
RACING THE PHOENIX: RUN, DEBI, RUN
The story of Debi Coleman,
who at age 34 was America's youngest Fortune 200 CFO.
by Dan Davis
-------------
It is no secret that fat people are victimzed.
They are discriminated against economically, medically, and
socially. They are harassed by strangers, self-professed
friends, and their own families. Rarely can fat people
watch commercial television or read popular magazines
without being told they are unhealthy, unlovely and
unemployable.
Some respond by withdrawing, and some fight back.
Some internalize the bigotry, becoming their own worst
enemies. A few respond by public self-depreciation, beating
society to the punch by punching themselves. Debi Coleman is
such a person.
At age 34, Debi was Apple Computer's Chief Financial
Officer, the youngest CFO in the Fortune 200. A brilliant
workaholic who felt guilty if she put in less than 60 hours
weekly, she once told _Business Week_ she felt "almost
predestined to run General Electric."
But Debi was fat, which in the eyes of corporate
management meant she was seriously flawed. Modern executives
were expected to be "lean and mean", hungry to surge ahead
of the competition. Debi may have had twice the intelligence
and three times the talent of the majority of her collegues,
but she didn't look the part of a rising corporate star. And
in the world of American business, conformity to corporate
culture in behavior and appearance has long been regarded
more highly than competence or innovative ability. That's
one reason foreign competitors have been kicking the hell
out of us.
The saddest part is that Debi bought the line. Her
weight had fluctuated since childhood, her metabolism
was admittedly low, and her frame was large and muscular.
She seemed a classic example of a person designed to carry
extra weight, yet she allowed herself to become convinced
she had an eating "disorder" which could be overcome by
dieting, intensive exercise, and counseling. The required
regimen was so intense that she could not maintain it
concurrently with her backbreaking work schedule.
Success in the corporate world too often proceeds
from a willingness and ability to exploit subordinates,
discredit colleagues and manipulate superiors. Few succeed
through competence, intelligence, and hard work alone. Debi
was one of the few, but the price was high. She lived her
job every waking moment, showing little interest in
maintaining a separate personal life, directing her energies
outward with a ferocious determination. Her avoidance of
privacy and introspection seemed equally determined.
Steve Jobs, one of the two cofounders of Apple
Computer, began chiding Debi about her weight. Although she
sometimes snapped back at him, she seemed to believe he was
nagging her for her own good and therefore should not be
called to account. The fact that Jobs continued to promote
her reinforced that perception.
As her hours increased, her weight continued to
climb. Finally, she consulted a doctor, who told her she was
110 pounds overweight and prescribed a diet, exercise and
psychotherapy. In March 1987, Debi took a leave of
absence, went on the Optifast diet, and began an exercise
program with a personal fitness instructor.
It was not long afterward that Debi was offered a
CFO job at Apple. She went back to work 71 pounds
lighter, resolved to continue her diet and exercise regimen.
For a short time she succeeded.
But things happened, as they will. Debi's work
schedule became ever more hectic. She experienced physical
setbacks. Then came the final blow: her younger brother,
long an invalid, died at the age of 28.
For the next few months Debi continued to work at
fever pitch. The diet and exercise fell by the wayside.
When she returned to her doctor in September 1988, she had
regained 40 pounds.
Her reaction bordered on panic. In fairness, there
were health factors other than weight to consider. Debi's
resting pulse was an abnormally high 125. Heart disease was
rampant in her family.
This time Debi pulled out all the stops. She took a
five month leave of absence. She requested and recieved a
demotion. Her fitness trainer, now also one of her two
roommates, devised a diet and extensive training program
under which she would supervise Debi's progress. The
psychotherapy continued.
Finally, there was publicity. Not invasive
publicity by parasitic paparazzi, but publically
encouraged and sought after by Debi herself. Publicity that
would ensure her embarrassment if she failed.
Debi had gone public with her previous weight
sabbatical, but this time she did it with a vengeance. Her
media culminated in an extensive spread in West magazine,
complete with pictures, which inspired the article you're
now reading. Debi made her diet - and her life - public
property.
In the process she has done a disservice to fat
people everywhere. She has reinforced the popular stereotype
of a "typical" fat person: a food addict suffering from
self-imposed poor health, with an overlay of personality
disorder.
It could have been handled differently. Had Debi
taken the time to focus her powerful intellect on available
research (rather than popular "literature"), she would have
found that diets almost always fail over time; that the
healthiest approach to eatin g involves not dieting but a
shift in dietary emphasis from fats to carbohydrates; that
an effective exercise program must be susceptible to
inclusion in one's life without necessitating a major
disruption; that living a healthy lifestyle does not
guarantee leanness; that her setpoint might dictate a
higher than "normal" weight under any conditions not
involving permanent semi-starvation; that many, perhaps
most, of her health problems might result from internally
generated stress.
Of course, Debi did consult professionals. But she
consulted professionals who told her what she expected to
hear. She consulted professionals who did no more than hand
her conventional wisdom about fat people, the kind of
checksheet wisdom which rarely applies to actual persons.
Especially persons as intelligent and complex as Debi.
Something within Debi drives her to fill her life
with activity. Even on leave she is constantly busy, always
with others, never in solitude. I think she is racing the
phoenix.
The phoenix is a legendary bird said to
periodically consume itself in fire and then rise from the
ashes to live again.
Sometimes people behave like the phoenix, burning
down parts of their lives in the hope of rising renewed from
the ashes. Then they start running, hoping to escape the
deep dissatisfaction which caused the fire in the first
place.
But you can't outrun the phoenix. The faster you go,
the sooner it catches up. When it does, you burn, rise and
run again, but each time you rise a little more slowly, a
little less fully. You only win by stopping to confront
- and accept - the part of yourself that gave the phoenix life.
Debi Coleman
------------
1953: Born in New England to John and Joan Coleman. Weight
problem since age 7.
1975: Brown University; English major; Thesis "The Nature of
Art in Nabokov's Major Novels."
Joins General Electric's Financial Management Program
MBA at Stanford
1978: Joined Hewlett-Packard - size 16 at 5'6-1/2"
1981: Recruited by Steven Jobs to Apple Computer as Controller
of the Macintosh Division
1984: whips Fremont Macintosh factory into shape
1985: Promoted to Vice President for worldwide manufacturing.
1986: Called one of 50 "fast track kids" by Business Week
1987: Doctor decrees her 110 pounds overweight. Takes short
sabbatical to go on Optifast. Loses 70 pounds.
Becomes Chief Financial Officer of Apple Computer;
youngest CFO in Fortune 200 and only
woman in this job.
1989: Has regained 40 pounds. Goes on 5 month sabbatical to
lose weight, requests and receives demotion. Upon
return to Apple, will be V.P. tax and treasury,
reports to her old position. Quote: "IF I COULD LOSE
A TOTAL OF 90 POUNDS AND KEEP OT OFF -- EVERYONE HAS
THEIR OWN DEFINITION OF SUCCESS."
--
Avery Ray Colter (415) 451-7786 | Now, class, repeat after me:
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