Page 8 of Without Regret

Although there was a small voice in my head which warned it wasn’t a good idea to pursue someone with whom I’d be working with, all I could focus on was the opportunity to spend time with her.

“Then there’s Tom, who is the accountant and based in New York.”

“He’s Phillip’s nephew, right?” I’d heard about the man and knew to be careful with him given his relationship to the owner of the company.

Simon gave me a tight smile as if trying not to say what he wanted to. “Yes. He is. You’ll meet him when we travel to New York City in two weeks. We work with him for all things accounting while in the middle of a possible acquisition. And Lyle comes in as the forensic auditor, but he lives in Minnesota.”

Simon went on talking about Phillip and a few of the others in New York I might be working with.

“If you’re up for it, I thought I’d walk you through the last deal to get your feet wet. Then we can head to lunch.”

***

Almost two hours later, my head was swimming. My father wasn’t kidding when he’d said Simon was the best in the business. I was learning the first rule about an acquisition was that no two were the same. I wasn’t above writing down a lot of notes. The key was to learn from him, not let my ego get in the way.

“Have I overwhelmed you yet?” Simon sat back, assessing me. We’d just gone through the last acquisition that had taken place right here in Dallas. The folder sat in front of me, and I intended to study it more later.

I chuckled and told the truth. “That obvious?”

“No. But don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s what I’m here for. Quite frankly, I want this to be as successful as you do.”

“Thanks. I’m certain once I spend some more time tonight looking at it I’ll have plenty of questions, but for now they’re still bouncing around in my head. I find this deal fascinating considering you found embezzlement. Do you know if they ever prosecuted?” Crazy to think the director of payroll and his girlfriend in HR had set up two fictitious people and paid them in order to get the money for themselves.

“They didn’t have to. He struck a plea to pay the money back. Last I heard, he moved to California. The unique part of this deal was we only had to terminate a couple employees who had a track record of poor performance. Meanwhile, a few others took early retirement.”

In other words, don’t get used to it.

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