May 21st. New York, Wall Street.
Today was a big day at Gale Capital, Zane's money-making company.
Henry Jugenberg and his top team were all in the big conference room. They were about to give their boss, Zane, a final, formal report on all the money they had made during the Asian financial crisis.
May was the month when all the big Wall Street companies would count their winnings and "cash out."
"Let's begin," Zane said with a calm, supportive smile.
The room immediately became serious.
Henry Jugenberg stood up, his voice loud and proud. "Sir, everyone. From last December until May, we used the $55 million you gave us to trade in the Japanese and Southeast Asian markets. We were 'squeezing' out the last bits of wealth."
He paused, a huge smile on his face. "Well, I'm happy to report that this part of the plan has made a profit of $270 million!"
As soon as he said it, everyone in the room, including Zane, burst into warm applause.
Even though $270 million wasn't as huge as the $1.4 billion they had made in the first big waves of the crisis, it was still an amazing amount of money. The "easy money" part of the crisis was over, so making this much was a real sign of their skill.
Zane was, of course, very happy! He was so proud of his team.
He knew this $55 million was his personal money. After he paid Henry and his team their well-deserved bonuses, he would still have over $220 million left to go into his overseas bank account.
"Henry, that's fantastic," Zane said with a big smile. "Now, tell me about the other part. How did we do with the money from our outside investors?"
"Okay, sir!" Henry said, grabbing another document.
"Sir, as of the 16th, we have 8,812 outside investors who gave us $610 million to manage."
"After all our hard work," Henry continued, "that money has now been turned into $740 million."
"This means we had a profit ratio of 21% in just six months! Even though our company is small, that profit number is better than 84% of all the other investment companies on Wall Street!"
Everyone in the room got excited all over again.
Zane was also very pleased. He never dreamed he could make so much money by using other people's money.
This was how real Wall Street companies worked. They didn't just invest their own money. They used money from thousands of other people, and then they would take a small fee for their work.
Zane's old way of doing things—just using his own cash—wasn't how a real, professional money company worked.
"Henry, what did we promise to pay our investors?" Zane asked.
"8.5% over three years," Henry answered.
Darn! Zane did the math in his head. This is a very, very profitable business!
He thought for a moment. "Wait... if we have 8,812 investors and $610 million... that means each person only invested about $69,000? No, this buy-in is too low. We need to raise it."
Henry nodded and pointed to another boss in the room, Andy Chenoweth.
Andy stood up. "Sir, in fact, Mr. Jugenberg and I were already thinking about that. We have a new proposal for you."
He handed the proposal to Zane. The new minimum amount to invest was... $100,000!
If you didn't have at least $100,000, you couldn't invest with Gale Capital.
Was this arrogant? Not at all. For the really big banks, the minimum was usually $1 million.
Zane also saw that they had a plan to limit how many investors they took. This was smart. It would make sure they could always make a good profit for everyone. If they got too big, like the famous "Madoff scam," things could get dangerous.
(Zane knew all about Madoff. He was a greedy man who ran a "Ponzi scheme" and stole $60 billion. He promised people huge profits, but he was just paying old investors with new investors' money. When he ran out of new money, the whole thing collapsed, and he went to jail for 150 years! You just can't hide a lie that big forever.)
...
After the meeting, Zane asked Henry to stay. He had a long, important talk with him about the company's future... and about sharing.
That's right! Zane had a big, generous plan.
He wanted to give 35% of Gale Capital's shares to Henry and his team. He wanted to turn his company from something he owned into a partnership, just like all the big, successful Wall Street banks.
Was Zane happy to give away 35% of his company?
He knew he had to be. A money company is all about the talented people! If you don't give your smart, talented people a piece of the company... they won't be loyal. They'll just take all their skills (and maybe even some of your clients!) and go work for someone else.
This kind of thing happened on Wall Street every single day.
Zane was smart. He knew that to keep the best, you had to share with the best.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Membership - Special Tier ( Only 15 members Limit )
Discount code : BCAF8
Check My New Story : Dimensional Chat Group: Surviving Stranger Things
Huge Content: Read 500+ chapters ahead.+ Access to all my Fanfics Chapters.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/c/kapa69
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter.