Thompson

"Risley had previously made around fifty pitches for the $ 20 million Clearwater needed to complete the series of deals he had lined up. Those pitches were mostly made to what Risley referred to somewhat derisively as “financial types.” The typical response had been, “Geez, that’s a lot of money. I don’t know.” Thompson was the opposite. “Twenty million? Is that all you need?” Risley, laughing, recalled him saying. Thompson turned to his CFO, John Jackson, and said, “Get your butt over to Canada and see what this young man is talking about.” So Jackson flew to Nova Scotia to meet with Risley and MacDonald and to inspect some of the deals Risley was eyeing. “And they sort of became my partner. We spent several years together building a big seafood business,” Risley concluded. “Twenty million wasn’t a lot of money for them but it was a huge amount of money for us.” Risley found no shortage of deals to pursue, eventually launching an acquisition spree that both amazed and baffled many in the seafood industry—how was a ten-year-old company able to afford so many purchases?"

"“Thompson was untroubled by self-doubt and as his wealth grew he increasingly indulged himself in whatever enterprises caught his fancy,”"