by Ed Nelson
That thought stopped me cold. Where was I in my financial life that a million dollars was rich, but only if handled correctly? I would have to give that some thought. Was I getting too big for my britches?
Chapter 3
Don’s presentation took almost two hours. The time flew by as he worked with us. Dad, Roberta and I didn’t have many questions but he was thorough in his answers. Roberta confirmed the accuracy of his numbers, well at least the math. Some of the projections had to be taken on faith, but they seemed conservative to me.
I thought more than one in one hundred people in the US would buy a hairdryer. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was as many as one in twenty. That is if fashions didn’t change. Short hair would kill us, now men wearing shoulder length hair would be a blessing but that wasn’t about to happen.
At the end of the time I asked if Dad and I could be excused for a minute. In Dads office I told Dad I wanted to hire Don but that I would like to get him really bought in.
“How would you do that Rick?”
“By giving him a share in the Personal Products Division.”
“How much are you thinking?”
“I think five percent would be a worthwhile amount.”
“It is, think about this. I was told about a common practice by one of my advisors, it’s called vesting. In this case we could start him out at one percent and each year he works for us he gains an additional percent up to five percent if he reaches his profit goals. If he misses a goal the only penalty is no additional percentages that year.”
“That sounds good; from what I have read this should be in the form of a contract with protections for us, like firing for cause.”
“Exactly, do you want to proceed? If so you can make him a verbal offer, with me confirming it as your legal guardian, upon his acceptance of the written contract.”
“Let’s go for it.”
“On the electric curling iron I think it will be a good product for us and certainly a good fit for this division and I bet we could get it for less than a million.”
“You probably could Rick, but do you want it at that price?”
That stopped me cold, why would I not want it at a lesser price?
“Just think about it, is the money that you save that important to you? Consider what you have now; and your near term potential. Then consider what it would mean to the patent holder. It makes them rich in their eyes. If the product is wildly successful later do you want them to resent you?
Actually the projected success will have them second guessing themselves, but if they get what they ask they should only complain about themselves. Mind you I said, “should,” not will. People can complain about anything. At least this way the court of public opinion will not be against you.”
I realized Dad was right, both about the money and my public image, or as Mum would put it penny wise, pound foolish.
“Ok let’s offer their full asking price.
Later I realized that this was a turning point in my life, I was becoming a real business man. Yes, I had made things happen, but this was the first true structured thing I had done.
It was a good thing Don was sitting down when I made the offer. It was all the money he was asking for with a world of possibilities behind it. The composed and assured young business man who had made the presentation looked a little wobbly for a moment. That didn’t stop him from getting a “Yes” out quickly.
Dad reconfirmed the offer and asked Roberta to have corporate council join us. Dad has corporate council? Things had been going on behind my back.
Roberta brought a gentleman into the room. In looks at least he was a stereotype of what I thought a corporate attorney should look like. Brown suit, dull tie, shined wingtip shoes. Dad introduced me to Mr. Sam Wingate.
We all sat down and I was waiting for Dad to start. It took a moment for me to realize that he was waiting for me. It was my business!
I recapped to Mr. Wingate what the offer was. He was making notes on his long yellow notepad. I thought the longer notepad was cool looking, as opposed to what we used in school. I would have to get some. He told us that he could have a draft for all parties written up by this time tomorrow. That worked for all of us.
After that I told Don to go ahead and start negotiations on the electric curling iron and that he was to offer full asking price. He wanted to know why, as he was certain we could buy it for less. I explained the reasoning, not telling him that Dad had just walked me through it.
I could tell from Don’s reaction that he wasn’t certain if I was sane, but he was getting while the getting was good. I had no problem with that as I wasn’t certain myself. One thing I had notice was that Don was Don while Sam Wingate was Mr. Wingate. The only real difference was that one worked directly for me and the other didn’t. I had to think about that. I wanted to respect those that worked for me.
We all shook hands and Don practically floated out of the room. One nice thing is he calls me Rick, instead of Mr. Jackson. That boded well for our relationship.
I thought we had done a good day’s work. It was after eleven so I could get some fun in yet today, maybe a trip to the beach?
That is when life caught up with me.
Dad commented, “That ran a little long, we will be pushing it to complete everything today.”
“Wasn’t that all,” I asked.
“I must have dropped you on your head when you were a baby. How many other business divisions are there?”
“Oh,” as my day at the beach disappeared.
“Who’s next?”
“Transportation.”
As Dad was telling me this, Roberta was escorting people into the room. They were all in suits and ties. Two of them looked comfortable and confident, one was scrawny looking, at least he was shorter than the others and he was pulling at his neck like he wasn’t used to a tie.
Dad introduced me to Luke Harding who told me was the leading contender to be President of Jackson Transportation, then Todd Goodson VP of Production from Transportation, Dad went on to tell me they were looking for a VP of Sales yet.
I glanced at the last guy curious as to his role; he had a silly grin on his face. It took a moment then the coin dropped.
“Popeye!”
I shouted as I picked the guy up into a hug. I did glare at Dad for his little trick, but having Popeye here forgave everything.
“What are you doing here, not that you aren’t more than welcome.
Dad broke in, “Rick lets step into the hall for a minute.”
Dad explained that I needed someone to actually go to the docks and work with the longshoreman union. He thought Popeye was our man.
“Rick before we get started I need to bring you up to speed on some things. Leaning into the conference room he said, “Roberta would you get Helen, she’s my secretary to bring some coffee in please?
Dad has a secretary?
Dad and I went back to his office.
“Long story short Rick. The actual waterfront is the biggest obstacle. The unions don’t want to lose jobs. Your Mum talked to Lucky. The family made a contribution to him through our Swiss accounts. That enabled us to make a deal with the major ports. We will fund training in the new equipment and not fight them when they ask for more money to operate the special cranes we will have to have in place. That is where Popeye comes into play. He will be our troubleshooter on the docks.”
That made a lot of sense to me when I thought of those bar hard fists of his.
We also will be funding the port conversions, at least New York, Charleston, Savanah, Houston, and LA here in the US. Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Liverpool, Sydney and Marseille are among others abroad. In the next two years we will be investing over two hundred million dollars.”
“Does the family have that much?”
“We do, but you will be funding it.”
“I know I don’t have that sort of money.”
“That’s why the United States Government is giving an
economic development loan to Jackson Transportation. I think I told you previously that Ike wants to accelerate international trade. He and his advisors feel this is the quickest way to do it. Look at it this way, I know you have been concerned about how being rich will affect you. Now you will be debt up to your eyeballs. Poor boy your problems are solved! That is also why my staff has expanded to support other ventures we will be doing with government backing.”
Somehow this didn’t make me feel any better.
We returned to the conference room. The proposed President Luke Harding started a presentation on his vision for how the business would be for the next five years. It was ambitious. The one thing that bothered me, he only spoke to Dad.
At one point I tried to ask a question. He almost sneered at me as he said, “Son we don’t have time for interruptions, let the adults get down to business.”
Chapter 4
I went all cold inside. Normally when I was mad I felt like I was seeing red. I had never had this feeling before. I wasn’t angry with this man, I wasn’t anything with this man, and I could have cared less if he lived or died.
“Mr. Harding, thank you for your time, I will not need your services.”
Harding gaped at me like a hooked fish. He looked at Dad for help. Dad didn’t say anything to him.
“You can’t decide not to hire me, Jack you are the President tell this kid to butt out and let us get to work.”
I spoke up, “Mr. Harding, Dad is the President since I’m too young to sign contracts but make no mistakes about it this is my company and my money that is funding this operation. We will pay your expense for attending this meeting, now good day.”
I hoped we wouldn’t have to call security, I wondered if we had security on site?
A very red faced Harding left the room.
Popeye winked at me. Somehow this told me I had done the right thing.
I turned to Mr. Goodson. “I’m sorry about that. I hope that won’t prevent you from considering an offer.”
“Actually I will now consider an offer. I wasn’t going to work for that ass.”
Dad hadn’t said a word during the entire exchange, when I looked over at him he had a smile on his face.
“Rick, I had a brief meeting with Harding earlier. I wasn’t impressed with his attitude either. You are better off without him.”
I looked over to Popeye, “Why are you wearing a suit and tie?”
“Harding told me I had to.”
“Loose the tie, never again for me.”
“Thanks Boss.”
“Dad told me what you will be doing for us, why did you leave the Pride?”
“She is in for a major refit for handling the containers, besides my girlfriend wants me to get a job ashore.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Yeah, her name is Sybil.”
“Aunt Sybil? My Aunt Sybil?”
“Yep,” Popeye replied with a huge smile.
“That’s great.”
“Where are you going to live?”
Dad broke in, “That’s one of the things that we will have to work out. We need Jackson Transportation to be located where travel is easy. Popeye will have to be traveling the world for the next few years.”
“Popeye, what do you think?”
“Well Sybil wants to travel with me, so it really doesn’t matter to me.”
“Okay you can work it out.”
I then turned to Mr. Goodson.
“Have we scared you away yet?”
He just shook his head slightly, and said, “Not yet.”
I had a feeling we were close.
Mr. Goodson, tell me about your back ground. He proceeded to fill me in on his background in production of trailers pulled by semi-trucks. That sounded like a good as fit to me.
“Has anyone talked to you about salary?”
“Harding filled me in on what he thought I should get. It wasn’t enough for me to take the job.”
I looked over at Dad and asked, “Same deal as Personal Products?”
He just nodded yes.
“Okay we are going to have a production division as a separate company under Jackson Transportation.” I then proceeded to explain the salary and percentage ownership which would vest over a period of time. To say he leapt at the offer would be putting it mildly.
I told him that Mr. Wingate, Dads corporate attorney would be presenting him with a contract but in the meantime we shook hands on the deal. After that it dawned on me to ask.
“Where will we be producing the containers?”
“There’s a factory for sale outside of Pittsburg, near my home which is for sale. It is set up to build semi-trailers so it would be perfect for us.”
“You have any idea what they are asking?”
“No but I will find out.”
“Okay, it looks to me like I need to find a President for Jackson Transportation quickly. I’m certainly not qualified to run this business.”
Todd chuckled, “From here you don’t seem to be doing too bad.”
“Thanks, I will try to say Hi tomorrow when you sign your contract.”
At that Todd saw that we were done with him and stood to leave, which he did after the handshakes all around.
This just left Popeye, Dad and I.
I turned to Dad, “It seems to me the piece of the puzzle we are missing is someone to head up Jackson Transportation to run our ocean freight and truck line.”
I turned to Popeye, who I noticed had slipped his tie off and unbuttoned the top buttons on his shirt. He looked more like the man I knew.
“Popeye do you think Captain Grumby would be interested in the ocean freight portion.”
“Nah, he already has bought a boat, The Minnow. I saw it out in Hawaii. It’s a neat little craft. I think he will do well, though the guy he brought on as his first mate seemed goofy as hell to me.”
“Let’s talk about your pay.”
“Okay but I’ve not much experience with this negotiation stuff. The union always set the rates.”
“Let’s keep it simple; the same deal as Todd, but it is a part ownership of Jackson Transportation.”
“You sure Rick, that’s a lot of money.”
“Besides the fact you are almost family now, you took a green young kid at sea and treated him right, I will never be able to tell you how much that helped me.”
That was the first time I had ever seen Popeye blush. If he had been chewing tobacco, he would have swallowed it.
“Thanks Rick, you were worth working with.”
I turned to Dad.
“Do you know what happened to the guy who ran Narrow Freight?”
“He’s still there, he works for us now.”
“Do you think he is up to the job?”
“Well Narrow ran out of money because of the owners taking all of it out of the company. He didn’t seem to be part of that.”
“Do you think it is worth trying him out?”
“Well he actually is doing the job right now. As we expand and he proves he is up to it, we could then give him the part ownership deal. He already is making the base salary. You will have to get him down to Argentina to talk to Howell Freight to make certain they are on the same page.”
“That works for me, now the Ocean going part.”
Dad thought for a moment, “The Scottish Lines is our partner in this; they seem to know what they are doing. Why don’t you let them take the lead? The owners made some noise about what death duties are going to do the owners. If the management does a decent job, maybe you could buy them out.”
“That takes care of that in the short term, but it is really critical for us. Popeye, have you met them?”
“The Owners no, management yes, I think they will do a good job.”
“Dad, could you talk to them for me?”
He smirked as he said, “I have people for that.”
Roberta who had been sitting quietly at the other end of the long conference table spoke up.”
“I could check their books out for you, or at least, I have people who could do it.”
What’s this, I have people? I need people. Aargh, I have people, Dad, Roberta, Popeye, and many others now.
“Okay, but it just dawned on me that someday accounting will have to come inside.”
Dad looked embarrassed.
“Rick that process has already started. Roberta as our outside accountant has helped set it up. She will do our independent audits. I will take you down the block after lunch and show you the Jackson Enterprise building.”
“I have a building?”
“Things have been moving quickly. Actually I own the building and am renting it to you.”
People, a building, a truck line, my own navy, this had been some morning.
A thought entered my head.
“Popeye, where are you staying?”
“With Sybil, at Jackson House.”
“My Aunt is here?”
“Her flight should be getting in soon. I should head for the airport.”
Popeye stood to go, we shook hands again all around.
“Jack thanks again for arranging a limo for this trip. This LA traffic is horrid.”
“No sweat, I would hate to face Peg if you guys got lost.”
“Yeah, she was always a holy terror, why I remember…”
Dad shut him down, I wondered what he remembered.
Chapter 5
After they left I told Dad that I felt so far in over my head that it was mind numbing. He told me not to worry, that he understood. I had to be in on the foundation of the operations but that the people hired would actually run it. I just had to be comfortable with the top people since I would be relying on them. Roberta agreed. Dad pulled out an organization chart and went over it with me.
It boiled down to that I would be listed as the CEO of Jackson Enterprises, Dad the President since I was not of legal age to sign contracts. When you took it down to basics I would be a figurehead for operations but the power when it came to the direction of the companies. While all this was being discussed lunch was brought in.