Page 232 - James Caan - The Real Deal

The Real Deal

he had sold ten franchises, then twenty, and then he started selling
them overseas. We had branches in Singapore, France, Germany
and Brazil. He understood the business completely and was
brilliant at his job. He worked so hard – trips to recruitment fairs,
meetings with potential franchisees all over the world – and also
spent hours in the office. With so many overseas partners, it made
sense for Humana to base itself closer to Heathrow, and we used
some of the early profits to buy an office in Windsor, which is
about twenty minutes from the airport. This speeded up our
expansion, and after a couple of years Humana was producing the
most amazing revenues in royalty payments from the franchisees.
The income was spectacular, and it meant I could use some of the
profits to invest in other ventures.
There was just one problem: Doug was homesick. He was
working extremely hard, but I sensed his enthusiasm was waning.
I was genuinely concerned that, despite his early successes, he was
going to turn around and tell me he was moving back to the US.
There was no way I could let him do that, so I hit upon an
ingenious way to persuade him to stay: my friend Jill.
I had known Jill since we’d worked together at Reid Trevena
and I just had a hunch that she and Doug would get along. It
helped that she lived in Windsor.
‘What do you think I am?’ She was quite furious at my
suggestion they should meet.
‘I’m not asking you to sleep with him! Just meet him for a drink.
He’s lonely, he needs a friend and I think you’ll really like him.’
I introduced them at the office and then ‘popped out’ for
something ‘urgent’ and left them alone for twenty minutes. The
next thing I knew they were having dinner, and before long Jill
became Mrs Bugie. Matchmaking isn’t something I’ve done a lot
of, but it certainly worked on that occasion, and it meant Doug
was happy to stay in the UK.
With Jonathan and Doug motoring ahead with their respective

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