Chapter 15

We didn't have a tournament this weekend, but we were going to Oregon next weekend, and then to Miami the following week. To catch up on things, I went into the office to see what I'd missed. The trophy case was already filling up, and someone had placed a team picture in the case as well. It was hard not to miss it as I went through the lobby. As I walked, I said hello to the security guards before ascending to the top floor, and my box of fun that they call an office. I felt claustrophobic already, and I hadn't even gotten there yet.

Nicole was in place to greet me, let me know that she'd missed me, and that she'd scheduled a meeting with Karen for the morning. Luckily, the coffee showed at the same time as Karen showing up, so we had some small talk while I enjoyed a few sips. With the door closed for privacy, I asked, "Are you happy at home?"

My question caught her by surprise, and she was immediately on the defensive. I raised my hand to calm her, and then continued, "When Laura and Marny were in town for the Rodeo, and I couldn't help but notice that you and Marny hooked up. You seemed very happy to have her with you, and sad when she left. I felt the same way about Laura, so there isn't anything wrong with your feeling that way. I have different relationships with different people, and I guess you can too, but you have always been a sub to Darcy as long as I've known you, and it seemed that you were either a dominant or an equal when you were with Marny. Do you feel like you'd like or need that in your life to feel happier? I don't know if happy is the right word or content, but if you could have the perfect life, how would you change what you have now?"

Karen said, "I love Darcy, I love the way that she takes care of me, and yet lets me play here at the office. There is no question that I love my work, and love running this company for you. There is no way that I ever want to let you or Darcy down, but because I'm a sub, I especially don't want to let Darcy down. Every day I also find that my job takes a tremendous amount of my focus, and with your guidance, we're kicking ass and taking names.

"The other week with Marny was an emotional time for me. I felt like we were more equal in our relationship, and I gave her some 'training' as Darcy did with me to help her focus on riding. I was wet and horny when she won, and I took some satisfaction in that win. I wouldn't be a good dominant unless, like here at the company, I was doing it for someone else. I could be a dominant to keep your other subs in line, but I'd still answer to you. As far as having an equal, it was very nice, and refreshing. I didn't feel under pressure to perform or satisfy. I still did, because I wanted to, but what was great, was I didn't feel the need to deny myself in the process."

"I understand what you've said to me, but, do you think that you'd want to find a girlfriend to fulfill that end?"

"I don't have time for that. It takes too much to balance the give and take to make sure everyone is happy. It's easier for me to know what I need to do, get the job done, and cross that task off my list. Darcy, besides being my dominant, is my love. I love her, and I know that she loves me. I never want to leave her love or her protection or her demands. I'm very comfortable where I am, and wouldn't want to change it for anything."

"If Darcy got another sub or a sub for you though, don't you believe that it could make you happy or happier than you are now if it was the right person?"

"I don't know the answer to that, because it's up to Darcy."

"I want you to know that I haven't spoken to Darcy about this, and she hasn't said anything to me. If you want me to speak to her, I will, and if you don't, then I won't bring it up. I just noticed your happiness when you were with Marny, and wanted to make sure that you remained happy in the future."

"I'm happy, and I don't want to leave or lose Darcy. Whatever else happens is up to her."

"OK. Let's talk about business."

"The market is climbing back from the loss, and we're using as much fundamental analysis as we are technical. We see a long bull market ahead of us so we're buying quality products. We're also tracking the support and resistance levels to target when to buy."

"Are you selling Call options on any of your positions?"

"I thought that we want to hold them long-term, so why would we do that?"

"Lesson two Grasshopper. If you own a thousand shares of Home Depot, and I hope you own a lot more than that, that you bought at twenty, then you have a twenty thousand dollar investment."

"Twenty G's got it."

"If it's trading at twenty-five today, then you're up on the stock, but won't actually see a profit until you sell it, and hopefully it will be higher than it is today, but at the worst, higher than when you bought it."

"I'm still with you."

"If you look on your chart, you will note that there's resistance at twenty-eight. You also see that the Options two months out, for the strike price of thirty, are a quarter. If you sold the Options then you'd get two hundred and fifty dollars today. You can look at the money as a dividend or income, or as I'd rather do, look at it that you have reduced your cost or purchase price to $19.75 per share. If they call the stock away, it will be at thirty dollars a share, which is twenty percent higher than it is now. Twenty percent in two months isn't a bad return on your money."

"That makes sense."

"In two months the Options expire, and you can sell new ones. If the stock is under thirty you can sell the thirties again or the thirty-fives. There might be some with a strike price of $32.50. However, let's look at those with a strike price of twenty-five cents a share. That was for two months, if you resold every two months at a quarter, then that would be a dollar fifty for the year. That's a seven and a half percent return on your investment if it didn't go up at all."

"I've never invested this way, but it makes sense."

"Using the example we just talked about, for every million in stock that would give you an extra seventy- five thousand a year in income. Now you tell me why we wouldn't want to do this."

"I don't know. It seems like a good way to reduce our risk, and increase our rate of return."

"There are pros and cons to every decision. What would be the con for investing this way?"

She thought for a minute, and then said, "Sometimes the markets or a stock moves in a big way with huge moves. If Home Depot got hot, and jumped up to fifty overnight, like after some kind of favorable news, then we'd get bought out at thirty, and miss out on the additional twenty dollars a share. If we sold the stock then we'd find ourselves exposed for the amount of the call, times the number of shares."

"If we sold the stock, we could and would buy back the calls first or close the position. We could also do that if we thought the price would rise over our strike or purchase price. You were right the first time. That means that you'll need to feel comfortable with what you'll be walking away with, which in this case is a fifty percent return, and be happy instead of hoping for a hundred percent return because of a possible news story."

"I'll have to do some paper trades to get comfortable with this new strategy. For most of our long-term buy and hold stocks, we're hoping for a ten to fifteen percent return, so if we can help ourselves get there through selling calls, and be happy if we just make thirty percent, then overall I think it's worth the risk. We own the stock anyways, so we might as well make it work for us instead of sitting in a drawer."

"You play with it, and let me know if you need any help or have any questions. Have you spoken to Chuck lately?"

"They're doing well. They finally got the money from the royal that didn't want to cover his losses. They're starting to implement your ideas, and the stock is starting to take off."

"Don't sell options against that one, because it's a buy and hold. With me on the board, that's the best strategy to stay out of trouble."

"What else do we need to cover? You get all the weekly reports. You shouldn't just leave them out by the pool."

"Yes Dear. I want to set up an investment group that focuses on technology, get more into venture capital, and startup companies."

"I think that that's a good idea. If we do our homework, and buy in for a couple of million here or there, we'll lose on some or most, but the ones that do make it, will easily cover our losses."

"If we become the big player in that area, then we can also put companies together where the sum is greater than the parts. They can either merge or form alliances that will benefit themselves and us as the investor too."

"I'll find some people, and start looking at companies."

"We might want to set up an office near Stanford since that's where all the smart people go to school, and will be closer to them. I don't want to participate every day, but I'd like to sit in on the final decision meeting so I can understand what we're looking at, and have some say in how we spend the money. Call Rob Peterson over at IBM to see if he'd be interested in managing the team. He's always been able to visualize new uses for technology, and he should make some real money for a change."

"I'll give him a call. Does Nicole have his number?"

"She copied my little black book one day. She should have it."

"Anything else? The way I look at it, we can use the money from selling the stock Options to finance the Venture Capital Group. On a four hundred billion stock portfolio, even five percent a year would bring in, twenty billion in cash to invest. With most startups looking for a million or two, we'd have to find ten thousand companies a year. What're we going to do with the left over cash? You make my job so hard. I knew Darcy shouldn't have told you to get back to work."

"I love you too baby."

She stood up, gave me a kiss on the cheek before heading back to her office. I heard her say to Nicole as she left, "I came down to go over how well we were doing, and he showed me a bunch more that we need to do. Next time he wants to meet, tell him that I'm on vacation." I laughed.

I wanted to meet with all the energy team leaders, but they were all out on the road. I had reports from each of them. Tony was making small gains in technology, but Boeing and GE were throwing a lot of money at the technology, so we were looking at other services, and outside the box ideas for feasibility.

Sue was having great results on the test barges, and the only real negative was the amount of space it required, and the visual aspect of the project.

Ken was working on the most promising, and the most disappointing area. They were having great results in the labs on a small scale, but when they attempt to expand to a larger version of the same concept, the results aren't proportional, and scaling the project up isn't working. They're continuing to plug away, and would keep looking for the breakthrough.

There wasn't much more that I needed to do in the office, so I just wandered around to see how the office was running. Most of the employees seemed happy, and the office was running well. I saw Karen come out of one of the manager's offices, which I liked. She didn't make everyone come to her, she could see the entire office and the employees, and they could see her.

I found myself in the same position as I was in, during my last year at Freedom Trucking; I had great people doing a great job with checks and balances in place to protect the company, the employees, and me. All of this made me very happy, so I followed Karen to her office.

I poked my head in her door, and said, "Tomorrow is Friday. Have lunch brought in for everyone in the office, and give everyone a five thousand dollar bonus for all their good work. I'm going to play golf because your team is doing awesome."

"But Britt, we have almost five hundred employees now."

"Make it ten thousand, and that includes the janitors."

"I'll shut up before they all retire on your gifts."

"Good girl. Wish me luck on the course."

"Good luck."

I drove home to get my clubs, and found that Lilly was the only one there. She seemed somewhat mopey, so I asked her if anything was wrong. She said "no" but even I could tell that she was upset about something. I know that over the last month, I had neglected her with all the work with the company, basketball, and Beth. I dropped the idea of playing golf, and said, "I came home so I could be with you. Do you have time for me?"