Some weeks ago I mentioned in a column that when I bought a nightclub in Toronto as a home base for Tradewinds, that although I had put up my house to secure the purchase, that didn’t quite cover it, and I had to turn to my sister and her husband to put a second mortgage on their house to seal the deal. Someone who read that column responded to me saying that I took a big gamble considering the uncertainty of the nightclub business. It’s a fact that nightclubs and restaurants are very risky business ventures, but, as I said to my friend, my foray was not nearly as perilous as it sounds.
I’m cautious, never been a gambler, and the fact is that in that situation I was not gambling at all. Indeed, I didn’t even ask to see the books for the business owned by two Canadians.
