Chapter 9

Ralph Granger would frequently have thoughts about how things were going for him in his job as well as in his social life. All considered he thought he had done well and generally was satisfied how things were going for him. Having those thoughts would cause him to reminisce about the events that led up to his present situation.

KAR Enterprises, who was Ralph’s current employer, was formed because of an idea Kevin Reeves had of how to extend the driving range of an EV. Most automobile manufacturers both here in the States and other countries paid a leasing fee to install Kevin’s patented concept in certain models of the EV vehicles they produced. They called those vehicles with Kevin’s invention their long-range models. This resulted in considerable sums of money being paid to KAR Enterprises yearly and would continue to be paid until Kevin’s patent expired.

It was Kevin Reeves’s goal he said to establish a business that would continue to exist and grow long after his patent had expired. There was no compelling reason for him to establish this business as he could just sit on his ass and collect this large amount of money from the leasing fees that he could never spend. In electing to form his business, Kevin realized he would need an accounting department along with an investment department. He wanted the investment department to invest the funds he was receiving in stocks and bonds as well as income-producing properties, businesses, and land.

Ralph Granger currently headed the investment department for KAR Enterprises and was initially assisted by Paul Roman and later on by Jason Dorsey. Paul and Jason were responsible for finding and evaluating business properties as well as land to purchase. While Ralph was their overseer, most of his time was spent purchasing stocks and income-producing instruments. Ralph’s duties were such that it gave him the time to learn from Paul who also trained Jason on how to do what they were doing regarding property purchases.

It could be said that Ralph was a happy camper for the most part as it pertained to his present life. He remembered that it was like yesterday when he graduated from college. Ralph had been working for two years as a financial advisor for a large brokerage firm when he received a call from Kevin Reeves who said he wanted to have lunch with Ralph to discuss an opportunity. Ralph knew Kevin from college as he was two years ahead of him at UT. What the opportunity was, Kevin didn’t say which made Ralph curious as to why Kevin asked for this lunch.

At lunch, there was some initial talk about how things were going and what was new in their lives before Kevin came to the point he wanted to discuss.

“I am starting a business in which I am going to need a financial advisor and I want you to do that for me.”

“What kind of a business,” asked Ralph?

“I have developed a way car manufacturers can come close to tripling the mileage they get from their EVs before charging is needed. How to do this has been patented and presently is being leased to several vehicle manufacturers. They are now starting to manufacture their vehicles with my innovation. You may have seen their commercials where they are calling some of their EV vehicles, “Long Range” models. The vehicle manufacturers are paying me two hundred dollars a vehicle for every car they manufacture with my innovation. As I said, I want to hire you to invest the majority of the funds that are going to be coming in. Can I ask what your salary is now, and let me show you copies of the checks I am starting to receive.”

Ralph told Kevin his salary and looked at the copies of the checks Kevin handed to him. These copies confirmed what Kevin was saying which dispelled any doubts Ralph had as to what Kevin said.

“What would be my salary if I did come to work for you?”

“I will double your present salary and there will also be a bonus. You should also know that I want you to invest in more than just stocks and bonds. I want you also to invest part of these funds in various types of commercial type properties, farmland, and undeveloped land that has the potential for development in the future.”

“The stocks and bonds I can handle, but I don’t have the expertise for doing the commercial property investing that you want to be done.”

“I understand that and you can hire the people necessary to do that, but you will need to be the overseer of my business’s investing. I want to establish a business with these funds that will exist long after my patent expires.”

There was more talk about the estimated amount of funds that would be coming in and how big of a business this would be. Kevin told Ralph about his plans were to hire people for his business. The conversation ended with Ralph extending his hand to Kevin to shake, saying he was in and would give his two-week notice to his present employer.

Setting up the investing side of this business for Kevin Reeves and KAR Enterprises was interesting and at times challenging for Ralph. Establishing an investment account was easy to do. Purchasing individual investments or instruments to invest in wasn’t much different for Ralph to do as he had been recommending investments for his clients to purchase at his prior employer. Now, he was doing the purchasing and was just adding a few more zeros to the number of shares of stocks he purchased. Instead of five hundred shares, it could now be five thousand or more shares he would purchase. He knew he needed to be careful in the number of shares he owned in specific companies which could have him filing certain forms the SEC required.

The major challenge in handling the investing for KAR Enterprises for Ralph was in doing the property type of investing Kevin wanted to be done. Ralph was able to find and hire Paul Roman who worked for a REIT doing that type of property purchasing. Eliminating the various approvals Paul needed to secure in purchasing properties along with the increase in salary and bonus had Paul sign on to do this for KAR. Paul was told it was expected that he would be involved in explaining Ralph on how to do this type of investing. Later on, Ralph hired Jason Dorsey who Paul was asked to train on property purchasing.

As it turned out, Ralph came to know that Paul was an excellent hire. Not only did he know about property investing, he had developed contacts to find these types of investments along with having the expertise to make solid decisions about properties that should be purchased and maybe later sold.

Ralph’s concerns at work in a way carried over to him having concerns about his social life, primarily as it pertained to the opposite sex. He was single and was wondering if he would ever meet or find a woman he would want to share the remainder of his life with. He had in college met women with whom he had short-term relationships with, but he hadn’t yet met the right woman he would ask to make that long-term commitment. At this stage in his life, he figured, or maybe he hoped, there still was time for that to happen.