Big Board
Now this is a serious Board Room inside Doughty Hanson's offices on the Pall Mall next to St James's Park. It easily seats twenty. I am with Nigel who supported eZoka.com back in the day and we have remained fast friends since. DH, for her part, founded in 1985 by Nigel Doughty and Dick Hanson and has invested €23 billion in over 100 deals across nine funds. I first met Dick in '97, after business school and interviewing for entry-jobs in London, when he asked me to analyse his firm's performance using the capital asset pricing model and, quite specifically, the efficiency frontier - concepts I had learned in my advanced finance courses at Columbia most notably with Prof. Tsomocos whose wedding Sonnet and I attended on an island in Greece. But that is another story. Helpfully Dick suggested that I map my thoughts on the white board. I did not get the job, oh boy, but two years later DH invested nearly $10 million in my company. As Costa says and I repeat: "Careers are a long thing."
Madeleine, enthusiastically: "I don't know?"
Me: "Oh.. I hate to do this to you but chores."
Madeleine:
Me: "Don't give me that look."
Madeleine: "Well you're all like 'what do you want to do after performance class' and then you're like 'chores.'"
Me: "What don't you like about chores anyway?"
Madeleine: "I just don't like them. I'd rather be reading a book."
Me: "Boy you must really hate chores."
Madeleine directly: "You are trying to make me say I don't like reading. I love reading."
Me: "You're right. I'm sorry about that.
Sonnet: "We also have to find time to do your school work and tutor homework."
Madeleine: "Oh, Mom, you too. Don't do this to me."
Me: "It's only 40 minutes out of your whole week end."
Sonnet: "It's more like two-hours."
Madeleine: "My week-end is ruined and it's only Saturday morning!"
