Chapter 432 End of Time at the University 4

Clara would turn 34 years old in 1998, but Jake thought she still looked very young and after getting a divorce and not having to worry about losing the company anymore Jake thought she was much better in those years.

"Hi, Clara, you look beautiful today in that blue dress."

"Thanks, Jake, you look great in that dress s.h.i.+rt too."

"Thanks, sorry for calling you suddenly after you went to watch my game in the final of the NCAA tournament."

"No problem, congratulations on winning the NCAA tournament for the second time, I saw that you won almost all the individual awards this season, this was a really great season for you and your team."

"Thank you, I am really very happy with everything that has happened and I think I got everything I wanted from my team at the university."

"Clara, I called you here because I want you to be one of the first to know, this year I"m going to leave university and join the NBA draft, I think I got everything I wanted at university and most of my teammates team also left the team, so I think it"s not worth staying another season at the university."

"Just as you may know, our sponsors.h.i.+p contract will have to end when I enter the NBA draft, I"m sorry I didn"t warn you before, but no one could know before the NCAA tournament final."

Clara who hoped Jake wanted to talk about it with her when he asked her to talk, just as Jake said she knew Jake was making an exception for her and Tiffany by continuing the sponsors.h.i.+p contract with her even though she paid only a part of what the other sponsors paid.

Clara hoped that Jake wanted to win a few more NCAA tournaments and break his individual records, but it seemed that Jake knew what the best time to leave was, just as he said without the other players on the team it would be difficult to win the NCAA tournaments in the coming seasons.

Her company had grown a lot in the last few years and a lot of it was thanks to the help of Jake who became very famous in the last few years, Clara lost some years that could have made the company grow more, but because of the problems she had this cannot to happen.

Fortunately, in the last year and at the beginning of that year, she had managed to recover much of the loss she had and Clara had made all the investments for the company to continue growing in the coming years even without sponsoring Jake.

"I expected this, even without knowing so much about basketball, I can see that you could have been playing in the NBA with the pros for a long time, thanks for letting me know a few months in advance, so I can do some marketing campaigns before the end of our contract."

"I don"t know if that will be possible this year yet, but after a few years you can use the fact that I have shares in your company as an advertis.e.m.e.nt showing that I still trust a lot in the growth of your company even if I am no longer sponsored."

"Probably after 2000 something big will happen and everyone will know about my investments, so if the public knows about it they will know that I still have contact with your company."

Clara thought Jake"s idea was a very good one, certainly, if she showed that he invested in her company it would be an even better advertis.e.m.e.nt than saying in television commercials that Jake used her company"s product.

"I liked that idea, I will continue to send our company"s products to you for years to come as you are a shareholder so that you can use some of our company"s products and if anyone sees it, it will be a small advertis.e.m.e.nt."

"Since we are talking about the company, I wanted to give you another good news, after last year"s investments the company has grown a lot and has gained a lot of value in the market even with the lowest profit."

"At the end of 1997, our company was valued at 480 million dollars, it has increased a lot since the last few years, and this year it will increase even more."

Jake was happy for this news because it showed that Clara"s company was no longer a small company in the market, it couldn"t compare itself with the big companies, but now all Jake"s fans knew the company and could use their product in the future even if Jake was no longer sponsored by Clara"s company.

So with this meeting, Clara and Jake realized that nothing bad had happened because they would still continue to work together and Clara"s company had valued a lot and would be even better in the future.

After finis.h.i.+ng the conversation with Clara, Jake asked Tiffany to have dinner so that the two of them could return the next day to Miami and the next day he could talk to John and Alan, Jake thought that the conversation with Tiffany would also be quiet and so he wasn"t nervous.

Tiffany showed up at night in a more modern outfit made for meetings and not a dress as Clara wore, but she was also beautiful and seemed happier with the good results of her company in the last year.

"Hi, Jake, congratulations on winning the NCAA tournament with your team and winning several individual awards, you deserve it for all the effort you have put in these past few years."

"Thank you, Tiffany, congratulations on the great results of your company last year, I am sure that with the new investments and the quality of your product in a few more years you will be a great compet.i.tor to the other beverage companies."

"Thank you, I am very happy with the good results because then the other shareholders will stop criticizing my decisions at the company if I did not have the majority of the shares I could have been fired from the company."

Tiffany said this because she knew that Jake understood the reason that she made the wrong decisions in recent years for the company"s growth, even so, the a.n.a.lysis of sales staff the company recovered everything that could have grown that year.

Fortunately, they never had problems with out of stock even with their limited production and in recent years their stores have sold very well, with Jake"s popularity his commercials have made more people want to consume her company"s product.

So in the last year and also that year after building new factories for the company, they entered into agreements with large distribution networks that included large stores of natural products and a contract with Walmart.

With the great profits that her company made in the last year, she could continue to invest in new factories if her products continued to sell as they were, her company"s suppliers were also growing along with her company and so the costs would remain low for many years.

"Tiffany, I called you here to tell you that this year I"m going to leave university and join the NBA draft, so our contract will, unfortunately, have to end, I"m really sorry."

"It"s okay, Jake, I"ve been waiting for this since before you started university, I know you did me and Clara a favor by keeping this contract until this year, I think now my company is no longer at risk to close and can continue to sell well."

"I"m sure of that, I always drink the drinks from your company myself, my roommates and teammates also like your products, whoever bought it once and liked it will continue to buy and continue recommending to people they know even if I am no longer sponsored by your company."

I think the only concern that your company and Clara"s company will have to have is to invest well in advertis.e.m.e.nts and commercials if you can continue to attract the attention of the public I am sure that you will be successful."

"Thanks, Jake, I hope that even with the end of our contract we will continue to be friends, you will always be very dear to me, after all, we have known each other for over 7 years."

"For sure, I consider you to be one of my best friends and who knows in the future we may be able to work again if your company is a great success."

Jake was happy that the conversation with Tiffany went well as well and he was happy that they would continue to be friends, Jake would be further away from Tiffany and Clara, but he would be away from all his friends having to play in the NBA and travel all year to making games all over the country.

Jake went back to college and his friends were still mad at him, especially since Jake hadn"t told them he was going to go to the NBA this season, they felt Jake didn"t trust them.

And Jake thought they were right, but he couldn"t risk telling others about something that important, after all, if anyone told the Tar Heels team unintentionally, they could lose the NCAA tournament and he would lose a friends.h.i.+p.

Jake was one of the people who believed that a secret was only a secret if n.o.body knew about it, he told David because he trusted David to be professional and to his mother because he knew that Eva would never tell this to anyone, not even Anna.

The other day Jake went to lunch to talk to John this time, the conversation with John was a little tenser because it involved more than anything business and money, moreover, it was difficult for Jake to explain why the contract had to be broken with his company paying $ 1.5 million a year, which was more than the companies that Jake would contract this season.

Jake knew that this could happen and as he had already agreed with David, he said that all of this was David"s decision and not his, Jake said that he had a sports agent who would decide these things in his career and had the final say about his contracts.