Chapter 9
After a few months, Oliva approached me to discuss how we could keep Chef Eddie as a long-term partner. He proposed that each share would cost 10k, with Eddie paying half and the remaining half from his salary over 6 months. I agreed, as I had no experience in negotiation and realized our mistake in not treating it as a true business partnership. Unfortunately, this led to us upsetting Chef Eddie and his team.Because he believes that we should offer free shares to him as appreciation for saving our sinking boat.He is right.
One evening at Sushi U 2, Oliva rushed to me with concern about Eddie and his team driving away clients from our French duck restaurant. I was speechless and went to see for myself. Manager Momo was indeed turning away customers, leaving me unsure of how to handle the situation.
I began to understand Eddie better - he was raised by a single mother, which explained his strong-willed nature. It made me worry about my own child’s temperament in the future and whether society would blame it on being from a single-parent family. When Eddie left for Australia, we said our goodbyes over dinner at a modest place - I still miss him greatly.
Our business is clearly declining, which is affecting Oliva’s confidence. I’m concerned about him and have shared with him how I run my consulting business, because I believe he can do the same with me if we have to close the place. He took my advice and I also connected him with another French client who will be investing in Pain hot French bakery next.They even invited former president Hollando to visit their bar during his trip to China.
When Oliva needs cash call during bad business, I get concerned and have a bad attitude. It’s normal for any investor to be worried when their personal money is invested in a struggling business, unless they are super wealthy. One day, I even started questioning him loudly about the cost splitting between his first sushi shop and ours. He asked me to do an audit, which was my fault for not doing it earlier because I wanted to save on auditing costs. Business is like life - money issues always seem to cause tension. It makes me look terrible in front of Oliva, even though I’ve put a lot of money into his project.
Oliva received an invitation to sell his sushi roll at the Cambodia pavilion at the Milan Expo again. I’m happy that he can do his side business to cover some loss.I received a call from him when he was in Italy. It’s a mess because of the protests at the Italy Expo. There is no good business like there was at the Shanghai Expo. Itlians are protesting for environment policy.
The staff inside the shop are feeling a bit unsettled lately. One day, Gabriel discovers that Oliva is dating the shop manager from his first sushi restaurant, and soon everyone starts gossiping about it as office secret realtionship with unfair treatment. I couldn’t help but listen in on the conversation.
The staff are worried about fair treatment. I am concerned it will become a family business even that young lady manager is very nice people. Head chef Tam from Sushi group is leaving; he spoke to me in a friendly manner and asked if I had received any dividends from Oliva. I replied that we are doing business for the long-term. Chef Tam reminded me that I am not his partner in the first shop but costs got mixed together with different shareholder structures. I believe that Chef Tam left because of concerns about cost control by Oliva rather than worrying about incorrect cost bills from different shops.
Since I am concerned about the cost, especially since I didn’t have the chance to be a partner in the profitable part of his business, I decided to terminate the partnership with Oliva after he back from Milan.
When I mentioned the situation to Oliva, he informed me that he was about to share with me his plans to get married in Sichuan and that he felt ready. When I asked him how he could be certain she was the right one, Oliva described her as young and intelligent, and shared that she had left her first engagement with a local guy. It means that she made her choice and she got right to do it.
He also mentioned that he wouldn’t be inviting me to Sichuan as a gesture of respect for his partner at the wedding ceremony. He expressed that this decision was influenced by my previous loud behavior towards his hard work.Plus he kicks me out from our consulting business after he found a new useful accounrant XL.
I feel foolish and surprised; it’s true that speaking loudly was my mistake.I accept all of his decisions.