Page 273 - James Caan - The Real Deal

27 · Harvard

plan. I quickly became great friends with the other seven people
on my floor. Much like YPO, I found I had a lot in common with
the other people who had enrolled there. Within a couple of days,
they felt like my best friends in the world. We were all missing our
families, all finding it hard, and we were spending every waking
hour in each other’s company: the conversation never stopped, no
matter if we were playing squash at the weekends or sneaking into
Boston for a night off.
Among the people on my floor was the CEO of BAe Systems in
Australia, the president of one of Mexico’s biggest food com-
panies, one of the top people from the Bank of Tobago, and a
woman who advised American corporations on their strategies for
working in China. All wealthy, all extremely talented and, needless
to say, all successful.
Every minute of the day was filled by the course leaders. When
I turned my computer on in the morning I was presented with my
daily planner: some days I was sent on an outward-bound course
with people from other living groups, other times I had instruc-
tions to complete a case study with other people on the course I
hadn’t yet met. Our days were as well designed as our halls of
residence, and by the end of the course I had met every one of the
other students. Even our desks were allocated when we arrived in
the classrooms to make sure we didn’t always sit next to the same
people.
One weekend a group of us went to Martha’s Vineyard, another
to New York City. Even though I was missing Aisha and the girls
like crazy, I was having a blast. There was one guy – Dan,
president of a cigar company – with whom I hit it off. We had the
same sense of humour and we soon became the cheerleaders for
trouble. We were like a pair of kids acting up in class and playing
practical jokes.
When we were sent off to produce a report or a case study, it
was absolutely fascinating to see how these hugely experienced

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