Page 173 - James Caan - The Real Deal

16 · Life in the Office

I had really come to rely on Sam, and she was great at mentoring
new recruits; if I wasn’t around people knew they could turn to
her. Two of my other managers were also women, Elaine and
Cathy, and I remember having lunch with the three of them when
the subject of pregnancy came up.
‘What would you do if we all got pregnant?’
‘Oh, you’re not allowed to do that!’ I joked and the conversation
quickly moved on. Then a couple of weeks later Sam’s husband
came to pick her up, and by then I’d got to know him quite well.
‘Sam tells me she’s not allowed to have kids,’ he said.
‘That’s right.’ I thought I might as well continue the joke. ‘I need
her here.’
It seems Sam may have thought I was being serious, because a
couple of years later she actually came and asked me if it was OK
if she started a family. Of course I was absolutely delighted for her,
but I wasn’t at all sure how I’d cope without her in the office for
several months.
Things change all the time when you run a business. Virtually
every day there would be a mini crisis or a new situation I would
have to face up to. Whether I needed a lawyer to sort out a dispute
with a client, a cleaning company to service the office or a
branding agency to improve our corporate image, I was always
learning. I often get asked by aspiring entrepreneurs these days
how you wear so many hats – after all, none of us can be an expert
in every field – but when it’s important to your business it’s vital
that you get the information you need to succeed.
What I typically did in those situations was call three people in
to pitch to me for my business. The first person would come in and
give me his pitch and by the end of the meeting I would have a
pretty basic grasp of what a branding agency could do for me, or
a PR agency or an advertising agency.
When the second company came in to see me, I knew a bit more
and could ask more pertinent questions. By the time the third

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