Chapter 49

Dani took B to buy a car. They were in the Jag, and when they pulled up to the car dealership, sales personnel were ready to help. They walked toward the used Toyotas, and Dani said, "Pick one that you like."

"D, I can borrow Momma's car. You don't need to buy me a car."

"I know I don't. Tell me again why you lost your last job."

"I didn't have a ride to work," she said dejectedly.

"I just spent a few hours helping you get a job. Do you think that I'd be happy if I got a call that they had to fire you because you missed work since you didn't have a ride?"

"No, but you realize that a car costs a lot of money."

"Yes, they do, but I'm not getting you a Jaguar, just a used Toyota. Pick the one you want, so I can go back to work."

"I like the Celica."

"Let's take it for a drive."

When they drove off with the car, they listened to how the transmission sounded as it changed gears, and they hit the brakes to see if it pulled to one side or the other. Overall, it seemed like a good car. The dealer was asking six hundred, but Dani talked him down to five. At the last minute, B said, "D, please put it in your name, and I can borrow it until I can buy my own."

"No, I'm putting it in your name, and that's final."

"But."

"B, I'll explain it to you later, but right now we need to get this done."

The salesman wanted to set them up with a financing deal, but Dani said, "Sign the title, and take my cash or let us go. We have things to do."

B drove her car and followed Dani over to her home, where they went to the living room and sat down. When they came in, I was reading the paper. Dani got them each a Diet Coke, and said, "Britt, tell my friend why it would be dumb to have a car in my name, and loan it to B to drive."

"Briana, If you got in an accident, and it was your fault, who could they sue for damages?"

"Me, I was driving."

"What about the owner of the car?"

"I don't know."

"In this state, they can sue the owner and the driver. So, if you hit me, do you think that I'd sue you or Dani or both?"

"It would be a waste of time to sue me."

"Right. Therefore, Dani didn't want to worry about you, your mother, your friend, or anyone else driving her car, and getting into an accident. That's smart. My step-dad was going to buy a car for my mom, and I was with him. The salesman asked how to fill in the title, and my step-dad gave him both names. I stopped him, and told the salesman to put it in mom's name only. If she is the driver and the owner, and she is in an accident, then they can't sue for anything that they own together, like the house. I keep some clothes in that house."

"What if they got a divorce?"

"When they each got their car in the settlement, then neither would have to pay to have their cars re-titled."

"I'm learning a lot hanging out here."

I asked, "Are you excited about your new job?"

"Yes, and No."

"Why would you say, no?"

"A and C were making fun of me. They're both on welfare, and when I told them I had a job and could maybe get them jobs, they asked what I was making, so I told them, a dollar fifty an hour plus tips. C laughed and said, that out of the dollar fifty plus tips, the government would tax me, and they would get more than I was making by going to work."

"They're right for now."

"Is that going to change?"

Dani said, "Do you remember when we graduated high school and we went to Disney for Grad Night?"

"Yeah, we were there all night with all of those bands."

"Right, you remember when we got on the monorail, and rode from the parking area the Magic Kingdom?"

"Yeah."

"You currently have a choice of transportation, the monorail, or a bicycle. You're choosing the bike. They're on the monorail that has a smooth and easy ride, seats that are somewhat comfortable, air conditioning that keeps you cool, but not cold, heat that keeps you warm, but not hot, and it can take you to around the lake in a big circle. Now on the other hand, you're on a bike where you may get hot, cold, or wet, you have to work to get where you want to go, you can ride your bike to a car dealer and buy a car or to the airport and get on a plane, or you can ride to Miami and go to the beach. They can go around in circles. You can fly to Paris and see the Eiffel Tower or fly to China and walk on the Great Wall. They can go back around the Seven Seas Lagoon again."

"Disney is a great place to vacation for a week, but you can't live there. They'll be stuck on the monorail. They will say 'we wish we had more money for food'. Therefore, they get a hundred dollars in food stamps and ride on the monorail for another month. They get just enough heat, just enough cool, and just enough food. You're at the beginning of your journey. You'll be a waitress and show the manager that you can work hard, and be responsible. Then you'll go into the Management Training Program. Remember, this is not because you're my friend, but because you earned the opportunity. Then you'll be making twenty thousand a year and they'll be on the monorail. They can't go anywhere because it never leaves the park."

"You work hard as an assistant manager, and ultimately you'll get your own store. You'll get a raise to thirty thousand a year plus bonuses. The next step will be a district manager making a hundred thousand a year. After that, it's hard to move much further, but Scott makes a lot more than that. So you can get on the monorail, and never get anywhere or you can get on the bicycle, and ride to wherever you're determined enough to go."

"I think I want to go somewhere."

"I'm glad. When you graduate to assistant manager, we'll find you a better place to live, and see if we can get your mom into rehab. If she's willing to get off the drugs and alcohol, I'll send her to rehab now."

"D, is this your house?"

"No, I'm leasing it to see if I like it. I may buy it next year or go look for some other place to live."

"You must make a lot of money."

"I do. If you think about how much I make an hour, I was stupid to go stand on a car lot with you without buying you a Jag."

"Well, if you want to go back..."

"No, we have you on the bicycle that's about to leave the park. Please ask A and C one more time if they want to get on that monorail. It's way up in the air and hard to get off."

"I will. I also won't tell anyone about your money. They may steal your hub caps."

"Thanks."

"Britt, what's your story? Do you work for Dani?"

"No, I own part of her company?"

"So, she does the work and you get paid."

"Kind of. We all brought something to the company that helped it succeed."

"So, do you just sit around all day and read?"

"No, I have my own company that I did the work for, and others get paid."

"I thought you gave her money to start the company."

"I, along with another guy, put up some money."

"Why didn't you use the money for your business?"

"I needed a lot more than I had, and Dani needed a lot more than she had. She needed millions, and I needed billions. We both brought in partners, and they share in the profits."

"So, will you collect forever?"

"It depends. I have a way to buy out my partners in the contract we put together. We don't have that in Dani's contract, but she may want to make me an offer one day to buy back my or the other partner's shares."

"That's cool. Is it hard to come to an agreement on buy-back price?"

"I set my price before I started. It seemed high to them at the time, but now they'll have to live with just getting the high number. If Dani came to me, we could find a price by letting one pick the price, and the other saying what they want to do."

"Like what?"

"Let's pretend that we were dumb as dirt, and bought a car together. We bought the car for five hundred dollars, and two years later, I said that I didn't want to own the car with you anymore. I would ask you to name a price for half of the car. If the car was now only worth around four hundred then two hundred for each half would be fair."

B said, "But, if I named the price I could say one hundred and fifty or two hundred and fifty, and not be that far off."

"If you said one-fifty I would buy your half for one fifty, and if you said two fifty then I'd sell you my half for two fifty. One person picks the price, and the other decides to buy or sell. If Dani picks the price I can sell her my shares or buy her shares."

"That's cool. This is like going to college."

"Not quite," said Dani. "Let's let Britt finish his reading, and go and relax out by the pool."

I continued to go over the reports for the next meeting in Nashville on the following Monday. Dani came in later, excited for her friend. She said, "I think she gets it, and sees that it isn't all take, take, and take. We have to give and take, work and get our pay, risk, and reward. That's how we get ahead."

"I'm proud of you. I remember the first time I saw you. You were masturbating on the bed in my apartment. Let's go see if you can turn me on as much today as you did back then. I'll give you a five-minute head start before I come and peek in on you."

"You nasty boy. Give me ten minutes."

It was fun to watch, but more fun to help her along the way. We made love until midnight before going to sleep. The following week I had board meetings, and then had to go to DC for meetings with a couple more countries, before returning to Miami to update and confer with Marco and Hector. I was just about to head home for the weekend, when I heard that there was a call for me. It was Karen calling to let me know she was a dad.

"Hey - me too!"

I took the weekend off, drove over to Tampa to drop off some flowers, and give the two moms a hug. The baby, whom they named Lynn, looked like most babies, tiny, wrinkled, and cute. I held her for a while, but knew that I needed to get going, because Michelle looked tired. For whatever reasons going on in my head, I really didn't consider Lynn mine, but of course, at any time, I would do anything I could to help them or her. I was happy for my two friends. I was in Tampa, and stopped for dinner, and then drove down and stayed in my place on Longboat Key. I drove back to Miami on Sunday afternoon.

I had spoken with Lola in Spain, and she set up a meeting with the Prince and her boyfriend. She'd be the translator. There are over sixty ports in Spain with the largest being in Barcelona. They didn't have the problems with bribes, but there were long delays, sometime weeks of delays, until the shipment left the port. I made some suggestions about technology. I suggested that they send some customs people to work in our US ports, and they could inspect the loads before sealing the container. If the seal was intact, then the container could pass through the port without the need to open it. We discussed the use of the bar code system to make things move faster, and more efficiently. I discussed translation software, so that everyone could be clear about the shipper, receiver, and contents of each delivery.

Fernando recognized the benefits right away, and then discussed the costs. I mentioned that it wouldn't be cheap, but nominal in the larger picture. IBM was working on setting up a data center for shipping, so all the different ports could be on a common network. For a small royalty fee on all non-Freedom loads, I allowed them to use the code that IBM had written for us.

I was very happy with how the first meeting went. They weren't out to cause problems, but had just never looked for a way to fix it. Since, the shipments eventually made it to their planned destination; they never viewed the delays as a big problem.

This was the same issue with most of the ports on Hector and Marco's list. To make sure that I did not have any problems with language, I had different translators in each country. Most of the meetings stayed on script, but some just didn't care. For those countries, I had to change tactics.

When I arrived in Tanzania on the east coast of Africa, I had been on the road for six weeks with an average of a week at each stop. This is a poor country with just less than forty million people, with an average income of six hundred dollars a year. After talking with the people from the Department on International Trade, they had little interest in the technology. It had been a frustrating day because they just couldn't understand why it was so important for them to take any action at all.

After I left the meeting, I stopped in for some dinner with my translator, Edda Mwagelo. She could see the look of frustration on my face, and asked me why it was so important to get this done. I explained that if we had to work more, we had to charge more. They added those charges into the price of shipping, and that caused the prices on the shelves to go up to the end users. The worst thing would be that shipping to the country would stop, and the lack of competition would again raise the prices. We talked for a long time, and I even offered to pay for the equipment if they'd use it.

She could see that I was really just trying to help the people who were buying and those that were manufacturing, to keep the prices down. She said that we'd close the deal the next day. In the meeting, I'd say some words she'd translate, and then keep going. She was almost yelling at the leaders to do their job. In the end, we bought and installed the equipment for the country. I was trying to figure out where to go, and how to get out of the country, when Edda said, "Let me show you my country."

We drove to see the diverse landscape of the poor country. Agriculture is the main product in their economy, but the land that they can use is minimal, and weather can disrupt the crops. We did a complete circle, and ended up in Zanzibar, a small island off the coast. There were hotels for tourists, and the water was nice. I thought the people were nice, and wondered about all the missed opportunities that the people lost out on, because of where they were born.

Haiti, the last stop on this trip, was another poor country that was directly between Cuba and the Dominican Republic. This would be my first attempt at dealing with a country with a truly corrupt method of doing business. I didn't know where the corruption was, so I'd have to walk softly. The Ambassador in Washington set up the meeting. I had a translator with me, who spoke English, French, and Haitian Creole.

I sat down with the minister assigned to my meeting, and I started to describe the problems we were having, but didn't mention any corruption. I said, "We try to import and export goods to Haiti, and we keep running into problems with our containers being delayed due to paperwork, and fees that we never knew about, becoming required after the arrival of the shipment. This causes extra work on our part to get the containers back on the way to its destination. We need to come up with a consistent process, so that if we send the appropriate papers and fees with the shipment, then we can expect that the containers will go forward without any further delay."

The minister said, "We have been doing it this way for many years, and I don't see the need to change. If you're missing paperwork we'll get it and the fees resolved, and we will then allow the delivery of the containers."