From: Thomas Pritzker To: "G. Max" la Subject: Re: Date: Fri, 25 May 2001 06:55:02 +0000 "Is my plane long range." Is that like a challenge to my manhood? You think when I fly, I am a short hitter? Over the past three days I have negotiated for 42 hours. The guy I was up against is the best I have seen. In a funny way, we were a good match as well as a good team. Mutual respect does wonders. Seriously intense so you can imagine what my team thought last night when, in the heat of strategizing the next battle, I came up to my hotel room. They were a mess. I organized them, gave them their task and priorities and about 45 seconds after order descended, I said "sorry, I gotta go out now". My team is, I think, the most impressive set of brains and capabilities that I have seen on a single team. For some reason I don't understand, I have become the glue and the force. When I upped and said have a good night I thought they were going to shit. Our lawyer got pissed and kept grumbling at me, our CFO was fully bemused and my co Trustee was awestruck. They have no idea where I went. When I got back they had resculpted the document that we needed and today was full on focus for the jewels. In the end, I think I won over their lawyer's heart...but since it is made of ice that is of little consequence. There is background that is interesting in that I pulled a major U turn on the everyone. Their side and ours, with a totally different structure, that, I believe has the potential of being a ten strike... or maybe I should say an 8 strike, meaning I got less than I had, but more than expected out of a dismal situation. It was fun to lead them around the U turn. The structure is, I think, sufficiently elegant that we have a 50% chance of pulling it off with aplumb, and of course plumbs are always tastey. The mental energy over the past month has been staggering. This has been an intense exercise in being flexible and creative with attitude, law, business