Page 187 - James Caan - The Real Deal

17 · The Recession

By now I had spent several months searching for an alternative
business and had really taken my eye off the ball at Alexander
Mann. I was rarely in the office, the staff weren’t being led or
motivated, and their incomes were in freefall because we couldn’t
make any placements. Every week someone else resigned. There
really couldn’t have been a worse time for me to take my hands
off the wheel, and now the company was in a far worse state than
it had been when I’d found out about the profits of £1475. I was
now really lost and I just couldn’t see a way forward.
I continued to speak to my dad on the phone and he could tell
how confused I was. In the previous few months I had practically
given myself whiplash from trying to change direction so many
times, and what I needed was for someone to tell me what to do.
‘Of all the options you’ve looked at, which is the less risky?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘You’ve spent months looking at other things and none of them
is any better than where you are. You think the grass will be
greener, but in a recession it’s just a different kind of grass.’
As we talked I realised the least risky option was actually
sticking with recruitment.
‘Why is that?’
‘At least I know recruitment and in the other areas I risk capital
in industries where I don’t know the pitfalls.’
‘You’re right: you’ve already made your investment in recruit-
ment, so you’re not risking any new capital. And in recruitment’,
he pointed out, ‘you have a brand that means something. That’s
got to be valuable to you. You wouldn’t have that if you started
something else.’
He was only saying what I had started to work out for myself,
but when someone else says something it tends to crystallise and,
as we talked, I began to feel more positive and my affection for
Alexander Mann started pulling me back to the company I had
been neglecting.

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