71. because I want to meet that asshole too.
“John, I see you’ve been in Korea for a month again.”
“hahahaha, but it’s good to see your face brightening up. I assume things are going well for you?”
“Yeah, it’s just getting started, but I’ve got it under control, so you don’t have to worry.”
“Good, then. It’s good to have a healthy boss.”
I was in Korea for a month, and by the time I got back to the States, it was April.
I was prepared for John’s nagging, but this time he was surprisingly easy to deal with.
He seemed to be worried about my condition before I left for Korea, so I felt grateful.
“Oh, there’s an opening in the office building, would you like to go?”
“Sure, let’s go.”
I went to the office with John and George, and it was great.
It was exactly halfway from our home on the West Coast to downtown LA and not too far from our existing office.
Best of all, the neighborhood was clean.
“The site is quite large, 35,000 square feet. As you can see, it was previously used by a car tuning company, and the existing buildings are warehouse-type structures, so demolition would be simple.”
“How much are they asking for the land?”
“The owner of the land initially said he wouldn’t sell it for less than $200 million, but when I didn’t call him because I was waiting for my boss, he offered me a discount first to see if I was interested, so I think I’ll sign for $150 million, hahahahaha!”
“Hmph, that’s right, you made $50 million because of me.”
“That’s right.”
It’s a big piece of land with a floor area of 35,000㎡, which is over 10 million won.
It’s more than enough space for our garage, and I thought it would be nice to turn at least two-thirds of it into a park.
If we grow, we can build more.
“Okay, why don’t we build an office here?”
“hahahahaha, that’s great!”
“How much do you think the construction will cost?”
“I’ve gotten a couple estimates, and I think we can do it for about $200 million, maybe $300 million at the most.”
Okay, so $300 million at the most, $450 million total.
“And you can contract right away, right?”
“Yes, we can contract right away, and we can start demolition right away because it’s all vacated.”
“How long do you think construction will take?”
“Hmmm, if we go into design right away with the contract, we’re looking at six months, and if we start construction six months later, we’re looking at two years, so we’re looking at about two and a half years?”
“Um—.”
By next year, the damn virus will be here.
Then the construction won’t be able to proceed properly—.
“Let’s hurry up as much as we can.”
“What?”
“I want you to sign a contract and start demolition today, and I want you to hurry up with the design and get it done within two months.”
“No, boss, what we’re building is not some single-family home. I gave you six months for the design, which is ridiculously short because you’re a ‘fast and furious’ kind of guy. I gave you two years for the construction, which is ridiculously long because our land is so large that we can comfortably build everything on our land.”
“We’re building an office building, right? We’re not creating some kind of artwork. Let’s borrow an existing design that works for us. And we’ll put our own spin on it, George!”
“Uh, Alex.”
“I want you to prioritize the construction of the building over everything else. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“And if you get stuck on anything, you talk to John and Jeffrey?”
“Okay. My dad owns a small construction company, so I know a little bit about building.”
“Really?”
Then it got better.
“So what’s your dad doing these days?”
“What’s he doing? I told you he runs a small construction company.”
“Is that what I’m asking, is he busy?”
“I don’t know, he’s been playing golf all the time lately.”
“Great. Call your father!”
“What? Are you crazy? My dad’s company has never built more than five stories?”
“Who said anything about your father’s company?”
“Well?”
“Anyway, you’re going to supervise the construction and make sure the contractors don’t mess around, aren’t you?”
I don’t trust this guy.
When I was traveling around Daesung and quoting more than a hundred stores for interiors alone, I realized that if you really want to mess around, this is the place where you can do it badly.
It’s a bit ridiculous to compare interiors to large-scale building construction, but it’s basically the same.
“Are you sure your father is good?”
“Of course! He used to work for a big construction company, but when he got older, he went out on his own. He did a lot of big projects, and the company he runs now is called Hakobang.”
“…”
I should probably watch my language.
I habitually say hakko, hakko in front of George, and he follows suit.
“Humph, how much does your dad make a year?”
“When he was out on his own and doing well, I think he made over $300,000 a year. That is, of course, if you count the money he took home.”
“…”
I must have gotten off track.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been working for a big construction company for a long time.
“I’ll pay you 100,000 dollars a month to come.”
“That much?”
“If you do a good job, I’ll give you that much more as a bonus.”
“Okay, thanks! You’ll jump at the chance! Hmph!”
George jumped for joy.
“Boss”
“Yes, John.”
“How long do you think you’re going to hold off on building the office?”
“I’m trying to get it done by next year.”
“What? That’s impossible. There’s a lot of red tape and it takes time to build a big building.”
“Jeffrey will take care of that.”
“Hmmm—.”
From nob le mt l. co m
John looked at me suspiciously.
Why does he look at me like that?
“Boss.”
“Why?”
“Why are you in such a hurry all of a sudden? Isn’t your current office building good enough for at least another three years, maybe more if you’re really tight?”
“I just want to see my office building in all its glory.”
“Come on, I’ve spent more time with you these past few years than I have with my wife, and you’re not the kind of person who cares about a fancy office building, are you?”
“Humph—.”
Hagiya, they lived together for a while, and since then, they’ve been together almost every waking moment.
I was at a loss for words.
It was true that I was being extremely pragmatic.
“What’s your reason, really, boss?”
“There is no such thing, is there? I just want John to see to it that the building is finished as soon as possible.”
“Well, okay, I’ll see to it that the office building is built as soon as possible, but that will cost us more money.”
“No problem.”
And so the building project proceeded like baking beans on a lightning strike.
I called the landowner and signed the contract that day, and the next day I met with George’s dad, Jimmy, and asked him to make sure the construction went as fast as possible.
“hehehehe, don’t worry. I’ll build it as fast as I can, and I’ll make it safe and strong!”
“I believe you!”
I asked Jeffrey to cooperate, and even invited him to move his office into our new building when it was finished.
“Our company?”
“It’s great, isn’t it? You’re with me, and I’ll do it for half price for you.”
“You’re being ridiculous. I get it. I could use a bargain. And the location isn’t too bad.”
From nob le mt l. co m
Jeffrey’s brother’s law firm is quite large.
There are 20 attorneys and over 100 researchers and support staff.
When I first went to Jeffrey’s office, I was surprised to see that there were more researchers and support staff than lawyers.
“No, you have 20 lawyers, but over 100 support staff?” I asked.
“Brother, that’s where all my power comes from. The U.S. is not like Korea, where it’s easy to make money off of state honors. We do our own research and double-check everything from the ground up. That’s how we work, or at least how I work.”
“Good for you”
I received regular reports from South Korea, and everything was running smoothly under Nam’s leadership.
The management of iBiorlogics, which will be the key to vaccine development, was also secured smoothly.
The founder’s shareholding was low, so there was a serious management problem, but when we guaranteed the management rights of the existing founder for at least 10 years, he cooperated actively.
We only want one thing.
We only want one thing: to develop the vaccine that Vice President Min Myung-ki demands as soon as possible.
We told them to do whatever they wanted to do as long as they kept this one thing, so the existing founder was completely in control.
Thanks to the founder’s active cooperation, he spent 90 billion won, which was smaller than expected, and secured a 51% stake in the company, taking full control.
We also acquired McUniverse, a company that manufactures Ekmo, in a simple way.
Securing quarantine materials also went smoothly.
The cost of acquiring 200 mask production machines for seven companies was less than 20 billion won because all domestic mask producers are small.
I told them to keep securing machines and fabrics in bulk, even if it means placing pre-orders so they can’t cancel them later.
“I finally finished buying all the Nvidia stock, now all you have to do is wait.”
“Oooh, great job, John.”
From nob le mt l. co m
June 14th.
From nob le mt l. co m
John reports to me that he’s finished buying Nvidia stock.
“Nvidia’s average purchase price was $35. That gives me a 38% stake.”
“So you bought more than I thought?”
“Somehow it happened. I wanted to hit 40%, but I just stopped there.”
“hahahahaha! Where is that, you did a great job.” “Thank you.”
From nob le mt l. co m
John’s initial declaration to me was 35% of Nvidia stock.
Now, he’d gained 3% more.
With the same budget.
“The total cost of the Nvidia stake is $26.8 billion.”
“Okay, that’s what I expected. How much did you buy of Tesla?”
“We’ve been buying Tesla heavily since mid-May. In late May and early June, it was in the low $30s, and now we’re up 16%. The average unit price of our purchase is $37.5, and it’s going to go up as we buy more. Today’s close is $43.”
“Anything under $50, take it as it comes.”
“hahahahaha! Okay, but it seems like Musk really cares about us.”
“Musk?”
“Yeah, he keeps sending people over and asking what the purpose is.”
“What did he say?”
“I told him that it’s purely for investment purposes, and that he shouldn’t worry about it, especially since he’s not interested in taking control.”
“Good for you.”
“Yeah, Musk is a control freak, so I don’t know what he’d do if I didn’t give him that assurance. He’s not like Jensen, he’s got multiple hands.”
“Well, it’s purely for investment purposes.”
“hahahahaha! Exactly, there’s no point in buying boundaries. Besides, Musk wants to see the boss.”
“Me?”
“Yes, I think he’s half curious about you and half wants to know if it’s really purely for investment purposes. What should we do?”
“Make an appointment. I’d like to meet that asshole, too.”
“hahahahaha! Okay.”
And so the appointment with Musk was set.