Story #14 - Buy and Sell Agreements - Pay Now or Pay Later

Ben Swain had built his wholesale leather business using a combination of shrewd planning and tremendous risk taking that made him double his business every two years for a decade. About the time Reagan retired, he made his biggest move to outmaneuver a Taiwanese competitor and it blew up in his face. He faced utter ruin.

Things go wrong in bunches. He was going through a bitter divorce. His board of directors was split between his wife’s brother and sister and his own selected in house people. The board meetings were usually tense standoffs where Ben just managed to keep control since he had four of the seven board members on his side. He had broken his leg in a skiing accident and was hobbling along on crutches. And he had just discovered that his best witness was not only leaving the company, but was going to work for the very Taiwanese he was fighting and would undoubtedly be a hostile witness. We stood a very good chance of losing the case.

He sat across the desk from me in a very rumpled state. In the best of times Ben looked pretty disheveled. He was a big man, not fat but big, and suits on him always looked like he had slept in them the night before. He always needed a shave by three in the afternoon, had a habit of playing with a pen in one hand while making points with the other, and was brilliant.

Leave a Comment