Super Synergy in Crisis
The old saying went that great fortunes were born in times of crisis. Yoo Jae-won agreed with it completely. It wasn't merely describing a phenomenon; it carried the wisdom to see through reality itself. With every economic crisis, a new crop of great fortunes emerged. During Korea's representative economic crisis, the IMF debacle, there had been a certain class of people who swept up money while chanting "May it last forever like this." While the nation suffered, they made money, so they openly wished the IMF system would continue indefinitely. Yoo Jae-won had spread out the chronicles of history and laid plans to seize every single economic crisis without missing one. The first of those crises was approaching in 1990. It was the historic event that marked the beginning of the bitter feud between President George Bush, who had taken office the previous year, and Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussein. As the word "Iraq" immediately suggested, 1990 was the year of the Gulf War. Iraq first reduced Kuwait to rubble, after which a multinational coalition led by the United States formed and laid waste to Iraq. With nearly all the oil-producing nations of the Middle East turned into a sea of flames, it was only natural that oil prices would fluctuate wildly. When oil prices swung, the futures market that traded oil as a commodity naturally descended into chaos. Yoo Jae-won intended to exploit that turbulence to the fullest.
To that end, he had asked Remington Sting to find a retiree who had once handled oil futures at the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"Your conditions were so strict that it was difficult to find anyone, Boss."
Yoo Jae-won understood Remington's complaint perfectly. The conditions he had set were indeed demanding. The basic requirement was someone who had worked as a futures broker and then retired. On top of that came options: the person had to reside in California so Remington could keep an eye on them at all times, and anyone who had retired due to misconduct was disqualified. He needed someone with an excellent reputation and proven ability who had been forced to retire only because of age, and who lived in California. In an era without the internet or social networks, Remington had conducted the search using only PC communications and word of mouth, yet he had succeeded.
"Vincent Greenhill, Eric Cantor, Ted Crawford."
He had found three candidates. The youngest was in his sixties, the oldest in his early seventies. Their alma maters were UCLA, UC Berkeley, and Stanford—prestigious California universities. Ah, seeing their schools, Yoo Jae-won could guess how Remington had gone about the search. The New York Stock Exchange was an industry that placed great weight on academic pedigree. There would be people who had graduated from California's elite universities, worked as brokers in New York, and then returned to their hometowns. Through school networks, Remington could locate them far more efficiently than by starting from scratch.
"Excellent. Contact these people and recruit them into ID Technology."
"Me, sir?"
"Yes. I'll set the futures trading policy and budget, but the work in America has to be handled by you, Remington."
"Understood. But are we hiring all three? Even though they're retired, their asking prices won't be cheap."
"That's fine. Money keeps coming in anyway."
After giving Remington instructions regarding the hiring of futures brokers, Yoo Jae-won outlined several additional plans.
"Also, from now on, we're going to strengthen the role of the California branch."
The office here was similar in form to the Seoul branch. Originally it had been Remington Sting's personal office, but he had never owned the building. It was prime Silicon Valley real estate that would become far more expensive in the future, but even now it was expensive. They had been paying a monthly usage fee. Since last year, ID Technology had begun covering the rent. Naturally, the lease had been transferred from Remington's name to ID Technology's. Because the real estate price surge had not yet begun, the rent was still reasonable. But soon this space alone would no longer be enough.
"What kind of role are you thinking of?"
"It's an office in Silicon Valley, after all. We'll need to start developing programs. I'd like to hire about twenty people."
Yoo Jae-won immediately turned the idea of hiring programmers and developing an office into reality.
"Good heavens, you're going to hire twenty people?"
"Including the brokers, that makes twenty-three."
"Good heavens."
Both Remington and Ellen were stunned at the prospect of hiring twenty people. Managing all of them would leave them no time to carry out the tasks Yoo Jae-won had already assigned.
"I'm not hiring all twenty as programmers. We'll also bring in a middle manager, and a secretary to handle phone calls and scheduling. And we won't hire them all at once. We'll carefully assess each person's ability and character, then proceed step by step."
Yoo Jae-won himself had once suffered the consequences of indiscriminately increasing headcount. He had hired based solely on ability, only to discover too late that their character was abysmal. After being stabbed in the back, he had sworn never to make such a foolish mistake again. In reality, even when hiring Choi Kang-wook, Yoo Jae-won had thoroughly investigated every detail through President Park of Hyunmi Oil. He had hired Remington immediately because he already knew the man's character and ability from their previous life. With so many new employees, the current space would be insufficient, so they decided to lease one more empty office upstairs to create room for roughly twenty people to work.
"Once the office space is ready, begin recruiting. Tell the programmers they can assemble their own computers using the parts we have here, and we'll purchase any missing components with company funds. If they send the receipts by fax, we'll process the reimbursement."
Both Remington and Ellen welcomed this arrangement. It didn't add to their workload; it would actually lighten it, so their expectations rose sharply. Moreover, as the number of employees grew, their own roles and presence within the company would become more prominent, so they resolved to devote themselves fully to hiring.
In particular, the performance bonus envelopes Yoo Jae-won had handed them separately when he left the office ignited their professional spirit. Passion was nonsense. In America, riding the cutting edge of capitalism, the most powerful motivator for people was ultimately money. Receiving the thick envelopes labeled "Happy New Year" bonus, Remington and Ellen were truly burning with motivation. After all, each envelope contained sixty or forty portraits of a smiling Benjamin Franklin. Even someone reduced to ashes by overwork would have their fiery passion resurrected like a phoenix.
Having clearly demonstrated his role as president, Yoo Jae-won boarded a plane once more with Choi Kang-wook. Their destination was Texas from San Francisco. Because ID Software's office was located in Texas, driving would have taken a full day. By plane, however, the distance was short, so there was no burden. San Francisco and Texas offered completely different experiences. Everything felt different from the moment they arrived at Dallas Airport in Texas. Even though it was a domestic flight, the atmosphere at the security checkpoint was noticeably different. No one made overtly discriminatory remarks, but there was almost no warmth. It wasn't immigration; they only needed to check passports, bags, and bodies, yet the same questions were repeated multiple times. They even displayed an attitude that seemed to dismiss Choi Kang-wook for his imperfect English. Still, the documents were so thoroughly prepared that they couldn't find fault or turn him away.
"There he is."
After finally passing through security and exiting the airport gate, they saw a blond man holding up a roughly drawn sign with the ID Technology logo. It was the living legend, John Carmack.
"He's young."
Choi Kang-wook's brief impression perfectly captured John Carmack's current appearance. He was so young that the word "legend" felt unimaginable. He was less than ten years older than Yoo Jae-won. He wore jeans, a shirt, and a leather jacket. With silver-rimmed glasses and shoulder-length wavy hair, he looked quite handsome. He had the air of an insider; it was impossible to imagine him as someone who only sat in front of a computer in a small room.
"Yoo Jae-won? Mr. Choi?"
John Carmack recognized them and called their names. Hawkins and Remington had at least decent pronunciation, but John's was the typical American accent.
"Yes, I'm Yoo Jae-won. From now on, feel free to call me J."
Yoo Jae-won extended his hand. J was the American-style name he had carefully chosen for himself. "Jae-won" hadn't seemed too difficult to pronounce, but since there were people like John who simply couldn't get used to it, he had created the nickname for himself.
"I'm John Carmack. Call me John."
John shook his hand without hesitation. Like Remington, he had received a photo in advance, so there was no confusion. Of course, when the ID Software staff first saw the photo, they had caused quite a stir, unable to believe their backer was such a young man. In the end, they accepted it. After seeing the Keyboard Warrior source code Yoo Jae-won had sent, they could only marvel. Not a single letter was wasted, and the way he solved complex calculations with simple algorithms was something even the John Carmack they respected had never achieved. Moreover, most of the code in the program was difficult for anyone but the author to understand. Without comments or explanations, it was hard to grasp what each function did or follow the program's flow. Yet Yoo Jae-won's code was so intuitive. Following the code, one could immediately see which function was used where and when a particular variable was needed. Everyone readily accepted Yoo Jae-won as an elite of a different dimension, or even a guru above the elites.
"John, good to see you. In person, you're even more handsome than I expected."
"Haha, that's the first time I've heard that. You look younger than in the photo too, President J."
"Hehe, I hear that a lot these days. I wish I could age faster."
Adults wanted to look young, but children wanted to become adults. Yoo Jae-won was exactly like that now. If he were just four years older, he could handle most things, but at present there were many things he had to endure.
"This way, please."
John guided Yoo Jae-won and Choi Kang-wook to his parked car. While President Hawkins had sent a Cadillac limousine, the car John had brought was a Chevrolet Impala. It looked like it had been bought used, just like Yoo Jae-won's, and although it wasn't very old, it carried none of the aura of a new car. The latter felt more approachable. President Hawkins's hospitality had been businesslike, but from John there was an abundance of goodwill. Yoo Jae-won had invested a large sum and provided valuable source code. On top of that, he had come all the way across the Pacific to visit their office, so John felt genuine gratitude and warmth. Even the way John drove was extremely careful. The distance from the airport to ID Software's office was only about five kilometers. Traffic was light, so they would arrive quickly. Yet the conversation with Yoo Jae-won never stopped. Naturally, it was all about computer games and programming.
"Hey, look who's here at our office!"
John must have been excited. He burst through the shabby office door and shouted loudly. Then people who looked half-zombie shuffled out. Yoo Jae-won recognized John's colleagues at a glance. Just as John had become a legend, his colleagues were almost all named developers. Romero, Adrian, and others. These people, who had been working hard in front of their computers while drinking caffeine like water, came pouring out. Then they saw Yoo Jae-won and cheered elegantly. Although they had seen him in photos, this was their first actual meeting, so Yoo Jae-won and Choi Kang-wook exchanged handshakes and introductions with ID Software's staff under John's guidance. Each handshake was filled with deep gratitude. They had started their company without knowing better and were tasting the harshness of society when this benefactor had thrown them a lifeline. The investment was only ten thousand dollars, but even more important was the fact that their salaries, which had risen significantly compared to their Softdisk days, were being paid on time. Without ID Technology's support, once they burned through their capital they would have had to make games while working part-time jobs. Now they could focus solely on making games. Above all, Yoo Jae-won's standing among game developers was greater than he himself realized. The legendary sales of Keyboard Warrior had become a goal every game developer felt compelled to challenge. ID Software was no exception. After receiving the investment, the tension that had slightly loosened was now pulled taut again. They now had a concrete goal: to create a second Keyboard Warrior by making an excellent game.
"The president has opened the door to Electronic Arts for us!"
John dropped the bombshell.