George

"Moments later, I looked in the rearview mirror to see George, having recovered his composure, smirking at me. That is how I remember my friend decades later: smiling mischievously, always ready for our next adventure. George and others taught me that the friends you make are the measure of your life. And even the people you leave behind, you never really lose, because those moments are preserved in memory, and they fortify the bonds of friendship over time and space."

"The threat of the float being kiboshed never became public but it caused two weeks of great anxiety behind the scenes amid furious letter-writing by both parties’ lawyers. Heatley was affronted on behalf of his friends. Although he and Sheffield were just getting established, Tapper and George’s reputations were impeccable. But the official held a powerful position and because the market already knew that the float was imminent, if Rainbow’s partners could not persuade him that the company’s forecasts were genuine, the float would have to be cancelled. If that happened, the partners’ names might forever be tainted by the association."

"It was a time of absurdly easy credit, particularly for companies that had a track record and strong personal relationships with bankers. ‘The Bank of New Zealand would lend us anything,’ George wryly observes. ‘The bankers almost became personal friends.’ Businessman Alan Gibbs, who would become an investor in Heatley’s next project, Sky Television, describes the mid-eighties as a crazy, speculative period. ‘Between the drop in the exchange rate [after the 1984 election] and the sharemarket crash in October ’87, New Zealand had the biggest boom in its history and one of the biggest booms anywhere,’ Gibbs says. ‘Everybody’s share price went through the roof. You could make dough out of anything.’ Some companies that had depended on import licensing for their monopolies proved to be unprofitable once genuine competition appeared. As they faltered they were picked up cheaply by the new corporates. The behemoth Brierley Investments Ltd (BIL) was expert in that field. Atlas Majestic, the first stock that Heatley had purchased as a boy, was one of the companies that Gibbs took over."

"Tapper and Margaret George had loyally hung on to their Rainbow shares, thinking that as founders and owners they should do so. Their personal stakes, which had less than a year before been worth a small fortune, were now much reduced. ‘If I had my time again, I’d sell on the way through,’ says George. It had been an amazing ride but, just like that log canoe a mere three years earlier, it seemed things were quickly coming off the rails."

"George would time his visits to eat sushi with his wife’s absence, so he was always alone at the counter. It seemed he didn’t know what to do with himself. Every time, he would bring a paperback into the store, and at some point, this changed to Amazon.com’s e-book device, the “Kindle.” It was the year the Kindle was released, so this was 2007. When George was sitting at the counter reading a book on the Kindle, another customer sitting next to him started a conversation. When this customer asked, “How’s the new Kindle?” George began speaking as if to say “I’m glad you asked.” “Not very good. It’s hard to use. I wonder if the people who made the Kindle understand what reading is,” he said, and he quickly began proposing his own “Kindle improvement ideas.” The masterpiece moment was that Greg Zaar, who was sitting next to George at the time, was the person in charge of Kindle development."

"Until that day in 2007, we didn’t really know what Greg was doing. It just so happened that George, who was using a Kindle at the counter, sat next to him, and through their conversation, the mystery was quickly solved. Greg found an enthusiastic Kindle user, and I remember the conversation between the two that night was quite lively. I think it was an amusing scene to witness. When I recall the image of Greg, who hid his identity and listened earnestly to George’s complaints, it still makes me chuckle. Incidentally, George promptly purchased the second-generation Kindle when it was released, and his dinner companion during his wife’s absence became the new e-book device. He seemed satisfied, saying “The points I made were properly improved.”"

"Even before concluding the deal with SAB in 1969, Sol had identified Plettenberg Bay as a potential jewel on the future tourist map of South Africa. The first time he set eyes on it, Plett was a tiny village near the Port Elizabeth (now Gqeberha) end of the Garden Route, which runs primarily from George to Storms River. The village comprised a short main street with a tiny stone church, elevated above two spectacular ocean bays on the southern side. A mountain range to the north curved around the sides of the village until it touched the sea. Cradled by the mountains, this little gem overlooked an ocean replete with whales, dolphins and other exquisite marine life. A small peninsula divided the two bays at the point where the Piesang River trickled – and sometimes gushed – into the sea."