Page 64 - James Caan - Get the Job you Really Want

I went against convention. I thought, ‘We already have good
lawyers, accountants and bankers working for us. The things
Will lacks, we have as strengths. But the component he has –
those marketeer’s skills – we don’t have. He has presence, he has
charm. When he walks into a room, he connects. An accountant

doesn’t necessarily connect when he walks into a room. All the
bits that Will would struggle with, we have people working here
who can do them. If I could give him access to draw those people

in when he needs them, he could be quite good.’
I spoke to a couple of the guys internally and they were
quite cynical. They said, ‘James, we’re not a sales organization.
We don’t sell. Private equity is quite a sophisticated financial
business.’ They all thought I’d lost it a bit.

But my view was that, ultimately, lawyers and accountants
and bankers only come into play when there is a deal. What
happens if there’s no deal? What happens if we don’t find a

deal? Because finding the deal is just as important as negotiat-
ing it correctly. It’s like winning the lottery: you’ve got to buy the
ticket first. If there’s no ticket, you’re never going to win.
I decided to give it a shot and we took him on. And guess
what? He is the most prolific originator in the firm. He has

brought in more business than anyone else.
As a result we have adapted our model of what an invest-
ment manager is. What we realized was that when you have

a function that’s not working, maybe that is because you
are expecting too much from one human being. When you
actually break a job down, you realize there are components or
characteristics in that role which you are not going to get from

52 get the job you really want