new job and needed a headhunter.
“I had no idea that he ran the company,” Kathi explains. “I said, ‘Oh, gosh . . . funny seeing you here! What do you do?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I do everything. I sweep the floors, I clean the bathrooms.’ I just thought, Oh, okay . And then after my interview, I learned he was the president of the company. He wasn’t my type at all, but I was so impressed by his humility and his demeanor that I thought, He seems like a nice guy. Maybe I should go out with him. ”
In January 1990, Craig asked Kathi to lunch. Since his divorce, he was implementing an “honesty is the best policy” approach on first dates with women. It sounded like this:
“I am never going to get married again, and I had a vasectomy, so I will never have kids.”
Awkward pause.
“They were stunned by my position,” says Craig. “Like, ‘Wait a minute—you seem like such a good, wholesome guy. And you don’t want to have kids? You don’t want to get married again?’ But I wanted to get it over with. I didn’t want it to come up months later. I think I was just exasperated and worn out from the whole dating thing.” He was also still hurting from his two divorces. “I just didn’t want to have to go through that again.”
On his first date with Kathi, Craig stuck with the brutal-truth policy and unleashed the verbal hounds:
“I am never going to get married again, and I had a vasectomy, so I will never have kids.” He threw in: “Don’t count on me ever sending you flowers, because I don’t believe in that.”
No awkward pause this time.
“I actually just started laughing,” Kathi says as she laughs again thinking back on the lunch. “I said, ‘That’s way more information than I need to know right now because this is really just our first date and I’m seeing other people. Thanks for letting me know.’ ”
Still, Kathi found Craig refreshing and fun. They soon discovered that they shared an enthusiasm for hard work and recreational sports.
“On our second or third date,” Craig recalls, “she had to get something out of her car trunk and I followed her. She had a bat and a glove in there.”
Kathi laughs. “I always kept sporting equipment in my car—baseball stuff or basketball stuff. That’s just me—in case someone wanted to play a pickup game.”
Craig’s parents had kept track of his lively dating life following his divorce. So, after he met Kathi, he said to them, “I think I found one.” He recalls, “I said, ‘Mom, she had a bat and a glove in her trunk.’ My mom said, ‘She’s a keeper.’ ”
Craig was thirty-five with two failed marriages, completing the buyout of his partner and restructuring Juntunen Inc. Kathi was thirty-one and had been married to a professional football player for five years. Both had high-pressure jobs but worked hard to carve out time for each other. Kathi got a glimpse of the pressure Craig was under when she spent the night at his house several months into their relationship. He rolled out of bed and “literally passed out.” She says, “I was thinking, Wow. ” She adds jokingly, “ Were things that great between us that I killed him? But what really happened was that he was just under so much stress at that time with his business that he literally got up and passed out.” (He came to within minutes.)
Kathi had worked hard for the life she’d built so far—an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, a high-powered job, her own home—but she was falling in love with Craig. Six months after they began dating, they decided Kathi would move in with him. A small crack formed in the wall Craig had built up to ward off commitment.
“It’s kind of like when a sunny day shows up,” he says. “You don’t question it; you just enjoy it.”
By September 1990, the buyout was complete and Craig began to bring to life his vision of diversifying Juntunen Inc. and making the company more
“I had no idea that he ran the company,” Kathi explains. “I said, ‘Oh, gosh . . . funny seeing you here! What do you do?’ And he said, ‘Oh, I do everything. I sweep the floors, I clean the bathrooms.’ I just thought, Oh, okay . And then after my interview, I learned he was the president of the company. He wasn’t my type at all, but I was so impressed by his humility and his demeanor that I thought, He seems like a nice guy. Maybe I should go out with him. ”
In January 1990, Craig asked Kathi to lunch. Since his divorce, he was implementing an “honesty is the best policy” approach on first dates with women. It sounded like this:
“I am never going to get married again, and I had a vasectomy, so I will never have kids.”
Awkward pause.
“They were stunned by my position,” says Craig. “Like, ‘Wait a minute—you seem like such a good, wholesome guy. And you don’t want to have kids? You don’t want to get married again?’ But I wanted to get it over with. I didn’t want it to come up months later. I think I was just exasperated and worn out from the whole dating thing.” He was also still hurting from his two divorces. “I just didn’t want to have to go through that again.”
On his first date with Kathi, Craig stuck with the brutal-truth policy and unleashed the verbal hounds:
“I am never going to get married again, and I had a vasectomy, so I will never have kids.” He threw in: “Don’t count on me ever sending you flowers, because I don’t believe in that.”
No awkward pause this time.
“I actually just started laughing,” Kathi says as she laughs again thinking back on the lunch. “I said, ‘That’s way more information than I need to know right now because this is really just our first date and I’m seeing other people. Thanks for letting me know.’ ”
Still, Kathi found Craig refreshing and fun. They soon discovered that they shared an enthusiasm for hard work and recreational sports.
“On our second or third date,” Craig recalls, “she had to get something out of her car trunk and I followed her. She had a bat and a glove in there.”
Kathi laughs. “I always kept sporting equipment in my car—baseball stuff or basketball stuff. That’s just me—in case someone wanted to play a pickup game.”
Craig’s parents had kept track of his lively dating life following his divorce. So, after he met Kathi, he said to them, “I think I found one.” He recalls, “I said, ‘Mom, she had a bat and a glove in her trunk.’ My mom said, ‘She’s a keeper.’ ”
Craig was thirty-five with two failed marriages, completing the buyout of his partner and restructuring Juntunen Inc. Kathi was thirty-one and had been married to a professional football player for five years. Both had high-pressure jobs but worked hard to carve out time for each other. Kathi got a glimpse of the pressure Craig was under when she spent the night at his house several months into their relationship. He rolled out of bed and “literally passed out.” She says, “I was thinking, Wow. ” She adds jokingly, “ Were things that great between us that I killed him? But what really happened was that he was just under so much stress at that time with his business that he literally got up and passed out.” (He came to within minutes.)
Kathi had worked hard for the life she’d built so far—an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, a high-powered job, her own home—but she was falling in love with Craig. Six months after they began dating, they decided Kathi would move in with him. A small crack formed in the wall Craig had built up to ward off commitment.
“It’s kind of like when a sunny day shows up,” he says. “You don’t question it; you just enjoy it.”
By September 1990, the buyout was complete and Craig began to bring to life his vision of diversifying Juntunen Inc. and making the company more
Similar Books
