Chapter 3
After our first cooperation. Mathild reached out to discuss his business plan with his friend SB, who has French heritage.
In the meantime, I successfully navigated a challenging office politics situation for the first time in my life from a UK pizza concept. Now, I need to reconcile with my former office team and take some time to meditate. Additionally, Mr. Xin from my soccer team is interested in introducing his friend David to me for potential business collaboration.
Mathild told me about SB who works as an event manager at a well-known Chinese American restaurant. Unfortunately, SB’s boss passed away from a heart attack while working hard. In response to this tragedy, SB has been actively searching for a new job and has also taken on the task of organizing a new concept for the restaurant with his friends.
As an event manager, it’s important for him to dress professionally at work. He recently became friends with a tailor from Hong Kong who owns a clothing shop near SB’s home area. I believe that SB always uses company`s alcohol to take care his tailor to save his own cost. After facing challenges in previous investments, SB decided to secure over 50% of the legal voting rights with his tailor as control after receiving equity from other investors in this new venture.
I learned about all of this during a casual meeting at The Pacific café shop in Sinan Mansion. It seems like a reasonable decision for someone who doesn’t have any ill intentions towards others.
As I mentioned, I recently left a UK pizza concept and learned some valuable lessons about office politics. I feel more prepared to handle any unnecessary judgment or drama in the future. Whatever happened is a good lesson for next.
At the same time. David has kindly invited us to his little girl’s birthday party. However, considering the lessons I’ve learned from Olivia about maintaining a professional distance between business partners, I find myself questioning why they extended the invitation. It seems that David’s family enjoys hosting parties for children and while I appreciate their friendly gesture, I have also learned the importance of maintaining boundaries in professional relationships.
On the day of David’s event, I drove my father’s MVP to pick up Mathild’s family in Xintiandi where he was living at that time. He looked great in a suit, following my dress code suggestion. The party at the party house in the crystal mall area was fantastic. David brought bottles of wine for all his friends and even gave me a bottle of famous whisky that no one had tried yet. The next day, I found it on my kitchen table and felt a bit embarrassed to text him about the great time I had and the extra gift I received. But he just laughed it off.
After the party, David expressed big interest in investing together with us. He also mentioned that her family gets along well with ours. Soon after, Mathild hosted another children’s party for friends and family, including those from David and me. I have also been frequenting Mathild’s family restaurant with my friends, as well as my kid’s cello teacher’s friend.
Mathild also organizes one dinner at Monsieur Ans place with David and our families at Monsieur Ans place.I got my Dutch friend in and I organized dinner for them at my another investment with son of principle from HK police school 1997. David comes with family inside his posche911.I called him Posche Man after dinner. I will write about this part later as usual.
My Dutch friend kindly reminds me to be cautious of our mutual friend who drinks, from his perspective as a Dutch person. I still struggle to understand because I see the good in him, I know that alcohol can cloud judgment.
To ensure smooth cooperation, I invited David to join our team after SB, his tailor, Mathild and myself. David has just returned from over 10 years in Europe and is now the new captain of our soccer team. Additionally, David’s family land provides a strong business background for his commercial landlord business.
I believed I did a good job in balancing the board structure, but I overlooked the fact that none of them have any experience in the restaurant investment in SH. It has its advantages and disadvantages.
Mathild and HK tailor are in the process of preparing a legal contract for SB, who has received equity from other investors. Mathild got help from his wifes family restaurant on SBs job descriptions. After several rounds of negotiation, we signed the contract at Greybox Café. I used my wife’s ID to invest with them because I had another investment that was not terminated at that time.
I have made a few significant errors since this early stage.
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When your friend is working for that event manager as a wine supplier, they will do everything to sell their wine, even if it means sacrificing the friendship.
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When the event manager wants to become an investor but he is still working on other projects as a staff member, he may maintain his team’s morale by requesting bonuses for himself and his team from investors in order to strengthen his leadership or personal loyalty. Because staff
s logic is different from investors logic. -
Usually, friendships formed by drinking may not be genuine.
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Be cautious when others request sweat equity. Essentially, they may not be willing to share the same level of risk as you and may selfishly overlook your value.
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It’s better not to rely on a drunk person’s business judgment except alcohol business.