By December, it was apparent that Bolo was more than ready to move on from the life he’d built in America. He’d started to make very brief, extremely covert trips back to Panama. These visits became his excuse to indoctrinate me into the back end of his operation. All things I’d previously had no exposure to- profit and loss, personnel, pipeline issues. All things I’d need to understand if I wanted to step up inna life.
Over a series of several weeks, Bolo would invite me along as he went about his business day. We’d start out very early, around seven am, in the PanStar backroom, going over all the moves we’d need to make.
“You know the front end of the business,” he told me. “All the business with the port. Storing the product here. Preparing and dispatching shipments. After that, what happens?”
“I couldn’t tell you for sure,” I replied. “And that’s what I need to know before you leave and Téo goes back to simply being a solicitor.”
“Then tell me,” Bolo asked, “what do you think you need to know?”
I’d obviously spent the past months giving this question a lot of thought.
“I need to know the entire workflow, from arrival in Newark to delivery to how the money is collected and funneled over to you,” I began.
“And, then?” Bolo prompted.
“I need to know who you hire. How they’re paid. Who manages them,” I continued. “You don’t personally manage your drivers and enforcers on a daily basis, do you?”
I knew he didn’t but framing the question that way would guarantee he’d give me a straightforward answer.
“Of course not,” he laughed. “You know I don’t. I have a whole level of management that you’ve never come into contact with.”
“But, why not?” I asked. “I’m a significant part of your upfront pipeline. I handle everything from the beginning to the middle. I touch product and money. Why don’t you have your watchdogs on me?”
“Because I don’t need to,” he said, simply. “And that’s why I bought Black Star and turned it into PanStar. You’re my partner, Hopeton.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but Bolo interrupted.
“Yes, I know,” he laughed. “I haven’t treated you like a partner, mainly because I only let you see one half of the business. But I didn’t want to put too much on you while you were finding your way. I’ve known my time in New York was coming to an end. And I knew you’d be the one to keep the business running in my absence, so please don’t hold it against me.”
There was nothing to say to that. I just shrugged and asked him what we had on the agenda for the day.
“Today I’m going to introduce you to my bookkeeper,” Bolo replied. “It’s time you learn how our finances are structured.”
“But what about all of these middle managers?” I asked. “When do I get to meet them?”
“Soon come, Hopeton,” Bolo said with a smile.
By the end of the month, I felt like I had a handle on all aspects of Bolo’s operations- I knew the key players on his management team, the enforcers who handled each territory, how the money flowed to and from Bolo and where it went once it was collected, how both versions of the company’s ledgers were calculated, the list of our most important wholesale clients and the list of people we needed to stop servicing. All of it made sense to me.
And by March of 1992, Bolo had more or less stepped away from overseeing day-to-day operations.
