Page 81 - James Caan - The Real Deal

Chapter 8

Aisha (1981–1982)

‘ To Aisha I must have seemed like a respectable guy in a nice

suit with a good job, and I wasn’t about to shatter that

illusion. ’

hen you sit down to write your life story, you can see
W there are days and events that changed your life immediate-
ly, irrevocably, and sometimes it’s only with hindsight that you can
spot the moment things changed. One of those days when my life
changed without me knowing it was 9 November 1981, the day
my future wife came in for an interview. By this stage I was so
good at judging whether or not someone would fit in at Reid
Trevena that the preliminary interviews only lasted fifteen minutes.
I knew instinctively if the candidate had what it took, and, if they
didn’t, I was good at closing the interview very quickly.
‘Thanks for coming in, Tiffany. Great to meet you. Leave it with
me, and if you give us a call next week, I’ll let you know.’ Bang,
close, move on, next person. I had just done several hours of
interviewing four candidates an hour, and the last person who was
booked in that afternoon was a chic Asian woman who had
responded to an ad I’d placed for a marketing trainee, which was
really just a way of saying ‘Insurance salespeople required’! It was

71