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that he needed another assistant, basically a
bookkeeper, to do the billing and to pay the bills.
Although both assistants were quite competent,
Michael could not resist micromanaging, thereby
making their jobs a lot harder. Still, he knew that
Yvonne would always be his bread-and-butter, so he
did make an effort to keep her happy.
In the meanwhile, she was becoming increasingly
aware that everything depended on her. She was the
talent. She was the creator. She was the money-maker.
Still, she would be forever grateful to Michael for
having not only discovered her talent, but enabling her
to monetize it and becoming richer than she ever
dreamed possible.
Over the next two years, both assistants quit and
Michael hired two others. But when the replacements
were hired, it took time for them to get up to speed.
Sales began to decline as costs rose. And when both of
them quit, it finally began to dawn on Michael that
just maybe there might be a problem.
And then, the recession of 1973 soon made bad things
even worse. Michael finally realized that while
Yvonne was still earning a decent income, he was
barely breaking even. He suggested to Yvonne that he
wanted to renegotiate their contract. She asked for a
couple of days to think things over.
7
Two days later she took Michael to dinner. She let him
go on and on about how business had been getting
worse and worse, how the recession was hurting sales,
and how they needed to make adjustments.
He talked about how he had had to fire so many
assistants, how he knew he wasn’t perfect, but now
that his back was against the wall, he would need a
bigger commission.
Yvonne had not realized that things had gotten so bad,
but she did know who was largely to blame. Michael
had one valuable sales gift, which was to let her
drawings sell themselves. But otherwise, he was
almost a complete disaster. Nevertheless, she did owe
him for giving her start.
She decided to level with him. “Look Michael, I will
always be grateful to you for giving me my first
opportunity. But face it -- you have almost completely
mismanaged the business over the last couple of years.
Giving you a bigger cut would just be throwing good
money after bad.”
He was stunned. He never would have expected this
kind of reaction. But he began to realize that she was
right.
“Michael, for the good of both of us, we need to
dissolve our agreement. I’m really sorry, but that’s
what I’ve decided.
Then she summoned the waiter, paid the check, and
left. Michael didn’t say a word.
8
A year later, Michael was still living in the townhouse.
He was still giving monthly parties. But now they had
spread out to the lower three floors below his own
living quarters. He was representing four hot young
artists.
Michael had very painfully become aware of his most
glaring limitations, but he felt powerless to do
anything about them. Still, he also knew his greatest
strength: Never try to sell anything. Just sit back and
let the buyer approach you.
Although he was once again an agent, he had the four
artists hire assistants to arrange for reproductions,
billing, and all the other arcana of the business world.
He just sat back and earned his commissions.
Despite what had happened between them, he and
Yvonne stayed in touch. He even got to know her son,
who was now almost eight years old. In fact, he had
some of Jimmy’s drawings hanging in his townhouse.
Imagine Michael’s surprise when someone
approached him to ask if one of them was for sale.
Founder’s Favourites | December 2021—Issue 17 | 13