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“Wee Willie Keeler” of achieving his elevated batting average, Barry “hit where they ain’t.” There was no way Fidelitas could ever have competed with the JP Morgans, Goldman Sachs or Merrill Lynchs of the world. However, Fidelitas hit where the big boys weren’t—the Asians, the middle-class Jews and the increasingly important Hispanic American population. Barry recognized that by focusing his attention on these minorities—and making them money—that would give him credibility to play in bigger sandboxes. As the years progressed, their clients grew with them and, as they did, they attracted bigger and wealthier clients.
    Over the years, Barry took on another three advisors besides himself. The requirements for getting a job as an investment advisor at Fidelitas were pretty much the same as at other investment firms: you had to have an athletic background and talk intelligently about sports; you had to have a sparkling personality that drew people to you; you had to be willing to work eighteen hours a day, and only slightly less than that on weekends; you had to be able to talk intelligently about whatever deal or investment you were pitching (but you didn’t need to crunch the numbers—that’s what the minions at the office were for); you had to be impeccably honest; you had to have an ethics and honesty record that was only slightly less than that of the Pope; and, at least twice a week, you had to be able to drink like a college freshman on his first visit to Panama City Beach with daddy’s credit card. Advisors had an entertainment allowance of twenty-five thousand dollars a month that, if they didn’t spend it, meant they were not doing their job. Client relations was the number two priority. (Number one was convincing the client to give Fidelitas his money.)
    These were all fantastic assets for one to be an investment banker. Numbers guys, analysts, who cared? You could always hire bean counters. What was most important was who could bring in the business and keep clients happy. Clients loved to hang with athletes, they loved to hang with good-looking people, and they most definitely wanted someone who could speak their language.  
    What would make a fresh young Ivy League MBA decide to join Fidelitas as opposed to any of a dozen New York investment banks that offered a starting salary twice what Barry offered?
    One word: Potential.
    Barry never had more than three other investment associates working at Fidelitas at any given time. Before he brought someone in for an interview, the candidate was already thoroughly vetted. In addition to all the factors the big boys on Wall Street wanted, Barry looked hard at a candidate’s morals—or more specifically, lack of them. In the interview, Barry let it be known that the main thing he was interested in was the size of the “book,” or amount of money that a client could potentially bring to the firm. Barry would gladly ignore the source of the funds. That made the jobs of the greedy bastards Barry hired a lot easier. If ethics was not an issue, bringing in business would be even easier than shooting ducks in a barrel. And there would always be the run-of-the-mill doctors, lawyers, and company presidents—but that wasn’t where the big money was. It would be what the legit firms might consider undesirable or untouchable.
    And that was where Fidelitas thrived. There were at least a dozen clients whose net worth was as great as the GDP of small countries. If it were known how these clients obtained their funds, they would be up for several hundred lifetimes of jail sentences or execution, either from some government or, more likely, one of the victims they fleeced.  
    To ensure their own safety, Fidelitas had one cardinal rule. Never ask clients the source of their funds. If they started to tell you, cut them off. That way, Fidelitas could legitimately claim ignorance if they were ever investigated.
    Which would be a huge lie. Through their own research,