John drove his big ford car. In fifteen minutes we pulled on to the property. It was a vacant lot. We got out and closed the doors.
"This is perfect," John said as he looked through the papers that he had brought with him.
"Here the city water tap," I said as I pointed to a fire hydrant.
"Let's see if we can find the sewer tap," John said.
We walked around until we spotted a manhole cover. John drew little notes and locations of these services on his map.
"Who should we get to do the plumbing for this job?" John asked.
I smiled and said," I can do this."
"What are you going to charge me?"
"Only twenty percent of your monthly take," I said.
"Does that include the piping material?" John asked.
"No, I don't have enough money to buy things like that," I said.
"Okay, how about ten percent and you get all the permits that we need," he said.
I looked at John to size up if he was taking advantage of me. I didn't see that little smirk that he makes with his face when he getting over on someone in a deal. I knew a few tricks too, as I pretended to scribble down some figures, then add and subtract them.
"I need fifteen percent just to break in the first four years," I said.
"Are you sure about that?" he asked.
I held up my scribbled up for John to see. He saw the fifteen percent that I put at the end of the equation.
"Okay partner," he said as he extended his hand and shook mine.
This meant no pay check for me for a while, but all my mobile homes were rented out. I talked it over with my wife and showed her the real figures of fifteen percent once the mobile home park was up and running at full capacity.
Her mouth fell open and suggested that I get the deal in writting before I started working. I made her promise to never to say a word about the deal and she agreed. I need her promise because I had often heard how her girlfriends would gossip about anything.
When we had married we both agreed to have seperate jobs and bank accounts, because many of our married friends had divorced over money problems. We didn't want that to happen to us.
The next day I went with John to get the permits. It cost him four hundred dollars for them all. We stopped by at a local plumbing supply company and ordered a third of the plastic pipes. Next we stopped at a rental equipment shop and rented a track hoe to be delivered at the site.
"Are we going to have to hire you some help?" he asked.
"I hope not. I don't want to give up my fifteen percent," I said.
"This seem like a lot of work for one man," John said.
"I know but it's like my old Indian friend once said to me when him and I started a huge job by ourselves. "This is a big elephant,"
I said, "yes it is."
He chuckled and asked me, "do you know how to eat an elephant?"
I looked at him with a puzzled expression on my face and asked,"how do you eat an elephant, that is if you wanted to?"
"One bite at a time," he said with a smile.
"I enjoyed working with him, because he gave me many good ideas," I said.