With a 25 percent ad increase and the same thirty ads, Ivan projected his website could generate more than forty-three thousand dollars a month in revenue, of which he would net nearly twenty thousand. An increase to forty ads a month at the same rate could generate close to sixty thousand, of which Ivan would close in on thirty thousand a month.

If Ivan could also reach his small cow party goal of twenty thousand dollars a week with Lucina, they could make over eighty thousand dollars a month, of which he would net more than forty thousand. Combining his website projections and party promotions for the year 2004, Ivan estimated that he could pull in seventy thousand dollars a month by the beginning of summer.

“That’s good money. And that’s not even including my increased salary now at Hutch and Mitchell,” he told himself from the balcony of a new downtown apartment.

From his party introductions to new friends, associates, and businesses, Ivan had brought in twenty-three new clients for Hutch & Mitchell Accounting. The commission on those new clients earned him another seven thousand dollars before taxes and increased his general income by two to four thousand dollars a month.

Pocketing a total of sixty-five thousand entrepreneurial dollars after taxes for the year 2003, plus twenty thousand added to his retirement fund, Ivan had never done so well in one year in his life. So to make himself feel worthy of his new progress, he moved into a two-bedroom apartment near the downtown Gaslamp area. He then paid an interior decorator friend of Lucina’s to furnish his new pad, creating a luxurious appeal for a sane price. And as he overlooked the San Diego skyline from his new high-rise balcony downtown, Ivan felt invincible.

“Yeah, this is the life, right here,” he told himself, grinning, with both hands clasped behind his head. His move downtown was only the beginning of his ambitions. Ivan still had a short-term goal to buy property in the university area to house his website offices. And he still thought of owning a home in La Jolla, with a half million dollars needed for a down payment.

“Why not?” he asked himself out loud. At seventy thousand a month by this summer, I’ll be able to do that by next year, he plotted. He could even see the hills of La Jolla from his downtown balcony, facing north.

He then looked out to his left to the nearly completed downtown baseball stadium for the Padres. Several other downtown apartment complexes, condominiums, and hotels were all under construction.

“Real estate and development, hunh?” he questioned. “Maybe it’s time to have another talk with Thomas.”

Ivan’s phone rang in the living room, breaking him from his ruminations.

He walked back inside and answered it. “Hello.”

“Yes, Mr. David, this is the front desk calling. We have a Mr. Emilio Alvarez here to see you. Shall we send him up?”