"Sure," he said, "and no, nothing's wrong. In fact, I'm really proud of the work you've been doing. There's just something very important I want to ask you."
I nodded as we walked down the corridor toward his executive office. As we walked inside, he closed the door behind me and went and sat in his leather chair.
"Have a seat, Foster."
"Okay." I sat down and faced him. Travis was one of the most brilliant minds in the financial world, and I had already learned so much from him. He'd never asked me to come into his office before, so I wondered what that meant.
"So Foster, as you know, I've been really impressed with the different funds you've been managing."
"Thank you, sir," I said, smiling.
"In fact, not only have I been impressed but so have some CEOs of companies I've been speaking to in Latin America."
"Oh cool. I didn't even know they would know who I am."
"Foster, in this business, the cream rises to the top, and everyone knows about it. In fact, I'm thinking about opening a branch in Brazil."
"Oh cool."
"I don't suppose you speak any Portuguese?" he asked me, hopefully.
I shook my head and laughed. "No. I studied French in high school and college, and it barely got me a baguette when I was in Paris a couple of weeks ago."
"No worries. Do you know any Spanish?"
"No," I said, shaking my head, "though I have thought about taking a night class or something."
"It's okay," he said. "Well, the reason I'm asking you all these questions is I'd like you to head up the office in Brazil."
"What?" I stared at him in shock. "No way."
"Yeah," he said. "In fact, we're planning to have an office in Brazil and a smaller sub office in Guyana."
"Where?" I asked.
He chuckled. "Yeah. Not many people have heard of it. It's next to Brazil."
"Oh okay."
"There are three Guianas, actually: British Guiana, French Guiana, and Dutch Guiana."
"Cool. I've never heard of any of them before."
"Well, you'll be going to British Guiana. You ever heard of Jim Jones?"
I paused for a moment, racking my brain. "Oh wait, is he the guy who took all those people, and they had a mass genocide with Kool-Aid or something?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "Well, that's what British Guiana is known for, or at least it was. They've got a huge amount of oil, and let's just say that is an emerging market we want to get into right now. I've got some investors in China, Canada, and Australia who want to partner with us."
"Oh. So exactly what would I be doing?"
"You'd be meeting with CEOs in Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela, who are at the forefront of the industries we want to enter. Mainly logging, gold, timber." He laughed. "Well, logging is timber, but you know what I mean?"
"Yeah. And what exactly am I supposed to be doing? I don't really know anything about those things."
"You'll be advising them financially."
"But I choose companies to invest in and make money. Not how those companies should make money."