The whole scene made some of his staff members laugh out loud. They loved working for Ivan. He was loose, fair, and organized. And he paid them well, with plenty of party and retail perks from advertisers, sponsors, and club and event promotions.

“All right, everybody back to work,” he said to his amused staff.

When he reached his far corner office, he sat back in his high, comfortable chair and returned a few phone calls to potential investors.

“Yeah, Vance Wellings here,” his first contact answered over his speakerphone.

Ivan had expected a secretary to answer. But when Vance picked up the line himself, Ivan switched over to the receiver for more privacy between them.

“Hey, Vance, it’s Ivan.”

“Hey, Ivan David, the man with the million-dollar website,” he hinted.

Ivan chuckled. He said, “I think we’re worth a dollar more than that. That sounds more like a penny.”

Vance paused. He said, “A hundred million dollars? That’s what you think your website is worth?” He sounded surprised by it.

Ivan was only joking to him with random numbers. But once he thought about it, with his website well on its way to generating fifteen million dollars that year, and still based mostly on a San Diego market, a hundred million dollars was hardly a stretch for IDPromotions.com’s national potential.

Ivan said, “Maybe I spoke too soon on that number. Give us another year to expand past our Southern California region, and I may have to ask for two or three dollars.”

Ivan had become a pro at pitching the numbers. And he liked to stay above the strike zone. But Vance figured he was throwing a pitch ball at him.

He laughed out loud and said, “You won’t get any hits with that one. You got the catcher’s mitt waaay up high.”

Ivan laughed with him. He said, “That’s why I’m going back to the dugout to warm up. In the meantime, I gotta work on raising your strike zone.”

Vance laughed it all off. At least the young guy had a spirited personality.

Ivan asked him, “So, what’s the rest of your week look like?” to change the subject. It was his new philosophy to make investors chase him down with their intentions.

“I got a network event I need to fly to in New York at the end of the week,” Vance answered. Vance Wellings owned a military uniform supply company. He was an ironic contact from Eddie K.’s insistence on adding the U.S. military recruiter pages to the website. Vance was now attempting to invest in more civilian products for international marketing. He was nearly a billionaire who had not quite made it onto the Forbes 400 list.

“That’s a crazy coincidence,” Ivan told him. “My guys and I were just talking about New York less than three minutes ago.”

“Yeah, what about? You ever been there?”