Chapter 77

It’s amazing how I wake up at six in the morning whether a weekday or weekend. Legs, breasts, and pregnant bellies covered me, so I had to wiggle my way out from under a wonderful pile of female lovers. I kissed Jules’ and Katie’s inviting nipples, thinking that our babies would be nursing very soon.

Three delicious oriental women followed me into the shower as I made my way to the bathroom. All three hugged me, kissed my chest, and pulled my head down to kiss my lips. These three are like my personal fan club. Sumi asked if I might bring even more women into our family. I assured the three sisters, “No more. You three are supposed to be my bodyguards, so do your duty and keep other women away from me.”

Sumi said, “I wanted you and to have our baby so much that I was blinded by the fulfillment of what I wanted. I promise to be a good mother to our child, but to also keep our family safe and you from gathering more women.”

The usually quiet June hugged me under the shower, and said, “You are so loving and gentle, I’m beginning to want to follow Sumi and enjoy a child of our creation.”

Mitsi kissed my neck and softly said, “I want to join Sumi, but I’m willing to wait until so many other babies are in our arms. I will be a loving aunt and nanny before I give my baby to our family.”

The four of us dressed and went down to the kitchen to see if there was any activity.

Osa was busy preparing something, and looked up at our expectant group. I pointed at the coffeemaker and Osa smiled and pointed to a tray of mugs. We poured coffee into mugs then Mitsi became busy putting another pot together.

We went into the saloon where Charles and Steven were busily making multiple pitchers of wakeup drinks. They had stalks of celery trimmed and ready for a Bloody Mary.

Charles said, “I know that your home office people enjoy a little kick in the morning. Miss Mika likes Irish coffee, so we have that ready in case some of the Chicago men and their wives want that or other juice and vodka drinks.”

Danni and Chica came into the saloon, hugged and kissed me, then embraced the three sisters.

Nobuko and Hideki came into the saloon and greeted each of us. Nobuko told the girls, “All us women will talk about our responsibility to our men and the importance of bringing new life into the family today while the men are golfing. I’m sure that even the ladies from Chicago will enjoy the conversations.”

Yuu, with the two wives he brought with him, followed Hideki and Nobuko into the saloon.

The home office folks with their wives arrived within fifteen minutes and were served their drink of choice. The Chicago group came in and were greeted with a lot of enthusiasm. They were surprised at having morning waker-uppers ready for then.

Willy, Jules, and Katie came in and greeted all of us with hugs. Steven gave glasses of orange juice to my three ladies, Danni, and Sumi.

We all sat at the big table and enjoyed the special pancakes made with coconut and pineapple. The Chicago men were excited while we ate about playing on a PGA tournament golf course. Yuu told them that they would have some serious bragging rights if they finished better than ten over par.

Everyone who was going to play golf boarded the bus with June driving, and Dai sitting in the front so that he could talk to her. Mika was a surprising addition to the group. She shared a seat with me and told me that she had been taking lessons three days a week. She said, “I realized how much business was discussed during the quick nine holes the men often played after work during good weather. Now I can be included and hear what’s going on within the company. This is good for the Chicago guys to see me playing along. I hope I do well enough that the other partners will include me in their evening escapes.”

Since we had four tee times we divided into four three player groups. Kurt, Ken, and Mika were in the lead group, followed by the three Chicago office managers. Hideki, Yuu, and Dai, and the last group made up of Forest, Frank, the Chicago regional manager, Matt, and me. I was surprised to see Hideki, Yuu, and Dai had clubs being kept at the club for them. I suppose that was why Jules had bought me clubs for each course that I often played.

We were early enough to use the driving range and practice putting greens. My swing seemed to be good today as long as I talked to myself through each stroke. I told Forest, while practicing, that I wanted him to evaluate Frank to make sure that he was being truthful about increasing his sales in our developments and working at finding condo opportunities. This is to be a pleasure match, so I wouldn’t push business questions unless he gives me a good segue. Forest grinned and softly said “You are as crafty as the rest of us.”

June drove the larger cart with my foursome. Frank kept saying how perfect the course was. He couldn’t get over the ivy covered brick restrooms accessible every three holes, along with ball washers at every tee. We watched each group tee off then drive up the paved path to get to their balls. The four of us were evenly matched as our balls were close to each other on the fairway. The groups ahead of us were not fooling around, so we weren’t being held up waiting to shoot.

Frank said “You know, you convinced me that I need to sell from my developments,” as we were walking up to the ninth green. “I’m going to have my Construction Super work on making the models sparkle on Monday. I’ll have my decorator redo them to look like mansions. I’m also going to use some property that we have to build some mansions. I could see how desirable your homes are and we are going to do this at all four offices. I want to try a country club estate with condos. We’ll have to have both indoor and outdoor pools, along with inside tennis courts for the winter. I think that a large fieldhouse would work for most everything, including three to six chip and putt holes. The big question is whether or not the partners will let me expand construction to four or five times the size it is, and if they will let me build this dream club?”

I reminded Frank, “I’m one of those partners, and they listen to me because I make them money. You be the catalyst to get your offices sales rolling and you can do anything that you want to make the company money. Your men all follow what you do and will embrace more ways to sell more and most of all, you and your men will be bringing home some nice commission and bonus checks. You and your people will be writing articles for the newsletter if you get serious about all this.”

Forest elbowed me, and gave me a smile and a wink. I was hearing what I wanted, and Forest felt like our outing’s goal was successful.

My golf game was okay, but I was focusing on improving each shot and not really trying to be the big winner. The day ended with Hideki, Yuu, and Dai all shooting around nine over par. The three Chicago men were all about twelve over. The home office partners were ten over par with Mika actually at only eleven over. Forest, Frank, and I were twelve, eleven, and ten over. Hideki told everyone that we all played a good round as a group.

All who went golfing took showers back at the house, and came down to the saloon for some refreshments and snacks. Charles said, “They’re out at the swimming pool,” when the Chicago men asked where the women were.

A couple of the guys went out to see the women and quickly came back giggling like eighth grade boys. One said, “You all have to check them out. They are all out there stark naked sunning themselves. Wow, what a sight.”

The three home office men grinned at each other as they watched the Chicago guys rush out to see a lot of bare naked ladies. I told Charles to turn the big television on and display the security cameras by the pool. Kurt said, “Man, that’s better than Viagra.”

Forest said, “Let’s go into the big office and talk for a minute. Our star partner has something that he wants to tell us.” I smiled and looked at each of the people before me once Forest was seated with Kurt, Ken, and Mika.

“I’m always amazed at how perceptive Forest is. I do have to announce my intentions to you, the partners who I respect so much.”

I had to take a deep breath before I began. “You know how much time that I’ve devoted to training people to be leaders. There is one person who will follow through with all the projects I have at this time. This person is my special assistant, Kelly. She has learned from me, as well as all the key people in this office. I want her to become the Regional Manager for LA and the other offices in our regional group. I’m going to be in Hawaii with my wives as they bring me babies to hold and love. I will still be coming to LA so that I can help with the decisions to get the last two LA offices open. I will continue to assist getting City Center on its way, and probably completed over the next several years. However, it’s time that I sit back and watch what my billion dollar partnership fee bought me. According to the records, the original partners gave five million in opening capital. You have all given an additional fifty million each to promote the business and create the cash for Mooney financial to grow and succeed, but not a billion.”

Kurt spoke up and said, “It was only a half a billion and you didn’t appear to have struggled to reach that number,”

“Okay, only a half a billion. That was obviously a way for the deceased partner to keep me from ever becoming a partner. He underestimated me and what my commissions and bonuses were, and felt that it would take me years to give the company that billion or rather half a billion. The sales and profits grew to an unbelievable amount because you all kept giving me more offices that were reasonably easy to turn around, the sales and profits grew to an unbelievable amount which means that commissions and bonuses to me and all my people also grew unbelievably. I’m going to take a leave of absence and just watch what I started become a dynasty here in LA. There is so much enthusiasm within the regions and local offices that the future is like perpetual motion. Your growth is guaranteed with you guys continuing to watch over the offices, so, Lady and Gentlemen, you know what needs to be done. Just do it. Take my partnership commissions and bonuses and put them into Mooney Financial. Kelly is going to have to use the entire third floor in our new main building for closing offices. We’ll have to see what else it’s going to take. That’s another reason why I’ll still be around.”

I looked around the conference table and could see how each person was processing the information and thinking about how Mooney would progress. “All of you need to know that I’ll still be in constant contact with this office, and I’ll still host the partner meeting in Hawaii. This home will still be available for you all to stay at when you’re out here. I plan on coming here often, but my primary residence will now be in Hawaii. Let’s meet again tomorrow so that any questions can be answered. I don’t know about you folks, but I’m pretty dry.”

The group went to the bar in the saloon and were quickly served by Charles and Steven. Steven said, “I’ve let the kitchen know you guys were finished with your meeting, so snacks should be coming out soon. Jules and Katie are at the kitchen counter, so they heard what you were telling the partners. You need to visit with them considering what you announced.”

Jules and Katie ran or rather waddled quickly to me to hug me with watery eyes as soon as they saw me come into the kitchen counter area. Katie said, “You are such a good man to make life changes to benefit those you love. I think Jules and I will give you our bundles very soon.”

I told the two, “I’m still going to have to travel back and forth to LA for the projects that I’ve begun. We can’t just abandon this wonderful home. We’re going to be a part of this place for a long while. We will still need this LA home in our future.”

I had Frank and the Chicago managers come into the big office to talk with me at the conference table after supper on this peaceful Saturday night. “You men have seen what can be done. Your offices have the population density to support and promote all the ideas that I have here and that we have proposed. The next steps and the outcome are in your lap. Do it for your personal pride and your families. This is different from smiling because you sold a dozen listings and listed another thirty. You will be selling both listings and development homes. Your increase in sales will mandate a lot more closings, so your finance and title office will need expansion and will be competing for closing rooms.”

I paused a few seconds to let that sink in. “You gentlemen are in for expense shock. Your construction crew is going to grow to at least four times the size that it is now. You’re each going to have to hire decorators and probably a few architects. Your finance department and title offices will grow as your sales ramp up. Don’t panic over expenses as you will be re-inventing your offices. You’re going to see a remarkable change in profits within thirty days. Get those models and inventory homes built and do the advertising that is described in past newsletters. Keep in mind that you need more decorators and some staff architects for custom homes. Begin thinking outside the box while you’re still selling as many listings as you have been.”

“Your assistants will get back from training full of enthusiasm and energy to sell Mooney built homes. They will be surprised to find your offices excited with the new activity. Help them create a plan to sell custom and inventory homes. Contact other offices to learn from them. Send more assistants out to be trained.”

Frank said, “You have us dancing around wanting to make our offices like yours. I know that it took a couple of years to get to where you are now, but you’ve done all the experimentation and have built your business by trial and error. We’re ready to make this change. You even think that it’s important to get and sell listings, so we will be adding on to our business instead of giving part of it up to work the developments. I can see where we’ll need more salespeople too. We’re going to be busy.”

The man looked at his office managers and asked if they were ready to get back to Chicago. He then turned to me and asked, “Can we get reservations to get home. We need to be ready for Monday.”

I told the men, “How about I send you back on my plane and you can use the time to make a plan for what needs to be done? I’ll have the crew ready for seven o’clock our time which will be nine o’clock Central time. You’ll be home before noon. Thank all of you for coming and recognizing that you can be even more successful than you are now.”

The guys joined their wives and told them the plan to leave early tomorrow morning. They all went up to bed to be ready for the early wakeup. I called the pilot about the early flight so that he could alert the other crew members and have the aircraft prepped.

I circulated with the partners, Hideki, and Yuu. They all had planned to play golf in the morning and had Steven reserve tee times at nine. The wives all said for us not to wake them.

Yuu and wives went up to bed, leaving Forest, Hideki, and me. The three of us had Steven pour us another drink. Forest asked me, “Do you really think that you can just so easily walk away from this?”

“I don’t know, Forest, but I’ve thought of dozens of things that I need to follow up on since I spoke to all of you this afternoon. Maybe I need to modify my absence to part time. I’m not burnt out, and I want to continue to be a part of this operation, but I want to get away from every burp that requires me to get on my horse to gallop into the problem. Kelly can handle ninety-five percent of the problems in LA, and we’ve added some really good assistants that she knows how to use. I think I have to leave so that she will assert herself as the leader. She needs to be making decisions on her own. She needs to be discovering plots to build developments and condo complexes. I think that everyone in the offices are depending on her more and more. I want her to take it over.”

Hideki said, “I’ve watched you and attempted to help you here. You listen for and to advice before you think situations through before you act on them. Kelly will hopefully do that too.”

Forest said, “How about we get Kelly out here tomorrow afternoon and meet with her and the partners. Let’s go to bed for now, and enjoy some golf in the morning. Oh yeah, Mika said that she didn’t want to play in the morning. She thinks that she has been pushing herself too hard lately.”