Gun-Ho had 200 billion won in his stock account. No one knew about this money except Gun-Ho himself and God. He initially had 210 billion won after selling his stocks, but he transferred 10 billion won to his bank account so he could use it in acquiring the company and in sponsoring the famous geisha—Mori Aikko. He was thinking about what he was going to do with his 200 billion won.
“Well, let’s take some time to figure it out. I’m not going to put my entire money into my business. I’ve seen too many people who ended up losing all they got by doing it.”
Gun-Ho thought of investing in real estate.
“There are so many restrictions in the real estate field. Moreover, I have to pay high taxes once I sell them. It’s not easy to liquidate them when I need either. I shouldn’t invest in real estate unless I know for certain that such property would bring substantial profit.”
He thought then of investing in the stock market.
“In order to generate profits in the stock market, I have to be quick in buying and selling stocks. However, with a substantial amount of money, I can’t quickly buy or sell them. There is no guarantee that the stocks I purchase would increase in price. Chairman Lee from Cheongdam Town used to say that I shouldn’t invest in the stock market because I can’t know the other player’s cards. I could lose everything that I have by investing in the stock market. I have to be very careful.”
Gun-Ho suddenly missed Chairman Lee from Cheongdam Town.
“Jong-Suk and I haven’t been to the fishing site for quite a while now. Chairman Lee must be fishing there by himself. Maybe I should go fishing this Sunday with Jong-Suk. But Pocheon City where the fishing site is located is too far from here in Asan City. I didn’t really think of the distance to the fishing site when I lived in Seoul. It’s hard to go there and it’s hard to come back from there too.”
Gun-Ho instead decided to give him a call to see how he was doing. He dialed Chairman Lee’s office number instead of his personal cell phone.
“Hello? Is it Cheongdam Town? Is the president available?”
“May I tell him who’s calling?”
A lady picked up the phone. She seemed to be the secretary who Gun-Ho saw before.
“I am President Gun-Ho Goo of GH Mobile.”
“Oh, hi, sir. How have you been?”
“Thank you for remembering me.”
“How could I not remember you, sir? I really enjoyed the dried persimmons that you brought last time.”
“Haha. I am glad you liked it. Is the president in the office?”
“Yes, he is here. Give me one second. I will transfer your call to him.”
After a moment, an old man picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Sir? It’s me, Gun-Ho Goo.”
“Oh, President Goo. It has been a while.”
“How are you? Are you still going to Pocheon City for fishing?”
“Of course. I have my vacation home there.”
At that moment, Mr. Sakata Ikuzo’s face just crossed Gun-Ho’s mind. The Japanese engineer’s face overlapped Chairman Lee’s face who was staring at the water at the fishing site.
“I should have gone to see you more often, sir. I am so sorry about that.”
“Don’t be. I know you are busy these days. You said you are in Asan City right now, right?”
“That’s right, sir.”
“How’s your business doing?”
“It’s doing fine. We just developed a new product. If everything goes well with the product, I think our sales revenue will increase a lot.”
“How much is the current sales revenue?”
“It’s 70 billion won annually. There are 250 employees.”
“That’s good. You can grow it bigger and go public.”
“Thank you.”
“I know you will do just fine since you are Tataki A Gari.”
“Tataki A Gari?”
“It means someone successfully moved up the economic ladder from the bottom without any significant academic degree or wealthy family behind or anything like that.”
“And I’m also constructing a new factory in Jiksan Town so I could move the current factory there.”
“Jiksan Town? Are you talking about the town in Cheonan City?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hmm. I can see you have been really busy.”
“Once the factory in Jiksan Town is completed, we will have a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Why don’t you come and join us, sir?”
“Sure. Just let me know when you have the exact date. I will stop by Jiksan Town then; I can also go and enjoy the hot spring bath in Onyang.”
“Thank you, sir. I will then give you a call later.”
Gun-Ho received a call from the vice president of S Group.
“President Goo, congratulations. Your product passed our test that was conducted in our research center. I have one requirement though before we make a contract. You must use the Dyeon’s raw materials in manufacturing the product.”
“Umm, sir. Dyeon Japan has quite limited raw materials in their location. We will have to get the materials from Dyeon America then.”
“Why don’t you send us the product cost statement, assuming you are using the raw materials provided by Dyeon America? Also, include the shipping fee.”
“Okay. I will send the product cost statement right away.”
“You can send the product cost statement to one of our staff here tomorrow via email. Once we approve the cost, you can verify the exact quantity of our initial order in our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I thank you, President Goo, for developing that product.”
Gun-Ho called for the sales director.
“I just received a call from the vice president of S Group. Our new product passed its test.”
“Oh, really? That’s great.”
The sales director smiled broadly.
“They are asking us to send them the product cost statement.”
“Okay, sir. I will send it to them right away. What about the raw materials?”
“Since we can’t get enough raw materials from Dyeon Japan, we will have to get them from Dyeon America.”
“But it will cost a lot for shipping.”
“Nothing much we can do about it. They insisted on using the raw materials from Dyeon only. My question is whether it is easy to get the raw materials from Dyeon America.”
“I heard Lymondell Dyeon had an enormously huge factory in Seattle, U.S.A., and they are selling their raw materials world-wide. So, I don’t think we will have any problem getting the materials from them. The problem is the shipping cost.”
“The vice president of S Group told me to include the shipping cost in the product cost statement.”
“Okay, sir. We will include the CIF (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) price for them then.”
“Sounds good.”
“And as to the labor cost, we will use the projected labor cost for next year instead of using this years’ minimum wages.”
“Okay.”
“I will bring you the product cost statement once it is ready to be sent, so you can take a look before we send it to S Group.”
“Please let the plant manager review it as well.”
“I will do that, sir.”
An extraordinary event happened to Jae-Sik Moon who was working as a security guard at Gun-Ho’s factory. He won a prize for his novel. He had been writing a novel every day during his night shift at the factory. He used a nickname when he submitted his novel; so, no one didn’t know that he was the one who wrote the award-winning fiction.
Jong-Suk ran into the president’s office.
“Bro, something huge happened.”
