Chapter 58: The CEO's Day Off
Chapter 58: The CEO's Day Off
“How does it feel, riding your bike to work in the crisp morning air?”
“It’s great, sir.”
I was on an early morning bike ride with Lee Jong-yeop.
San Francisco has no real summer or winter to speak of, but the temperature in the morning dropped to around ten degrees Celsius.
It was the perfect level of cold for a commute to work.
“Doesn’t breathing this fresh air clear your head?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You just can’t get this kind of satisfaction from pedaling when you’re in a car.”
“That's right, sir.”
Chatting with Lee Jong-yeop, we arrived at the building that housed Earth Resource.
Arcor, the company I had hoped would be my lifelong career.
Now, somehow, Earth Resource had grown far larger than Arcor’s Seoul branch.
Though, the head office and factories in Germany probably had tens of thousands of employees.
Being the CEO of a company brought a new and different feeling every day.
“Jong-yeop. Commuting like this is pretty nice, isn’t it? When you’re pushing the pedals, you feel completely focused on yourself. It’s a great way to stay in shape, too.”
“Yes, of course.”
I explained as we parked our bikes.
Was there another boss out there who cared about his employees as much as I did?
Oh Myeong-woo didn’t like bicycles.
No matter how much I tried to persuade him of the joys of riding a bike to work in the cool morning air, he wouldn't join us.
“Thirteen kilometers is a very short distance on a bike, you know.”
“Is that so?”
“When I commuted to Arcor, I had to take a slight detour along the Han River, so it was a 25-kilometer trip. Riding 50 kilometers every day kept me healthy.”
It was good exercise, and I saved on transportation costs.
I went on about the benefits of cycling as we headed up to the office.
“Jong-yeop. You’re not tired, are you?”
“Not at all. My head feels clear. It’s great.”
“Perfect. Let’s ride our bikes to work tomorrow, too.”
“Yes, sir.”
* * *
With Earth Resource doing so well, I was feeling the thrill of earning money.
It was a different kind of pleasure than what I got from investing.
“CEO, I think we need to secure additional workspace.”
“Okay. Please look into leasing a suitable office in one of the nearby buildings.”
The difference from a week or two ago was that with new employees filling out each department, the pace of work had quickened.
“I’m determined to join Earth Resource.”
“A spirit of relentless challenge. I believe Source Coin is at the heart of it.”
As Earth Resource became known as a rising star in Silicon Valley, exceptional candidates began submitting their résumés.
Some of those who came for interviews looked at me with sparkling eyes.
“It’s an honor to meet you, CEO Kim Shin.”
“An honor?”
“You started from nothing and became an incredibly wealthy man, and you built the Earth Resource business from the ground up, idea by idea. You’re my role model.”
I wondered what kind of rumors were spreading in Silicon Valley.
They saw me as more than just a young entrepreneur; they viewed me as a business magnate.
It was the kind of feeling that made me hold my head a little higher, puff out my chest a bit.
“Sir.”
“Yes?”
At the company, Lee Jong-yeop was meticulous about calling me CEO.
Over the years, he had addressed me as Senior, Assistant Manager Kim, and hyung.
He had called me by various titles over the years, and now "CEO" was added to the list.
“I knew you were incredibly popular in Korea because of your YouTube channel, sir, but I never expected this in America.”
“It’s just hype. They only recognize me in San Francisco.”
“But still, that’s something. It’s not something just anyone can do.”
He wasn’t wrong.
There was nothing wrong with having a reputation as the entrepreneur leading a promising Silicon Valley company.
As more employees were hired, my daily workload decreased, but in its place, I had to do frequent interviews with magazines and the press.
“Our goal is to create a Source Coin ecosystem. We will proactively challenge ourselves in many more fields.”
In front of the American broadcast cameras, I repeated remarks similar to what I had said at the shopping mall meetings.
Although it was only a local California broadcast, it was an incredible achievement considering how long the company had been around.
My life had been turned upside down.
I discovered the Bitcoin my father had left me and grew it through investments.
That was just as winter was beginning, so in just two and a half years, my life had changed dramatically.
The world, too, was changing rapidly.
- US Bans Entry from Europe
- Stock Market, Oil Prices Plummet on European Travel Ban
- FED Intervenes in Market Yet Again
- Federal Reserve Injects Another $1.5 Trillion in Liquidity
- US Stock Market: Casino, Airline, Cruise Stocks Crash
- Dow Plummets 10%, Worst Day Since Black Monday
- COVID-19 Could Kill Over 60 Million in Worst-Case Scenario
The New York stock market crashed, and fear spread.
Since Earth Resource wasn't a publicly traded company, it was hard to feel the direct impact, but concerns about a recession were growing.
With the US coughing so severely, the Korean stock market was in chaos, with circuit breakers and sidecars being triggered.
- Pershing Square Capital: 100x Return on Derivatives
- Billionaire Bill Ackman Achieves 10,000% Return in COVID Crash
- Hedge Fund That Predicted COVID-19 Shines with High Returns in Market Collapse
Even amidst the chaos, there were people in the New York stock market making a profit.
News articles featured those who were making enormous gains not from rising stock prices, but from trading derivatives like put options or on corporate default rates.
‘Those who navigate the waters between greed and fear.’
That strange sensation I felt when I sold Bitcoin and bought Ripple.
The feeling I had when I bought put options, predicting the stock market would crash due to COVID.
Which side to bet on, what judgment to make. Reading the articles brought back that sensation.
‘March was a market of fear.’
I was running a company with the dream of being a good CEO, but I could feel my investor's instincts stirring within me from time to time.
* * *
Lee Jong-yeop had steeled his resolve when he came to America.
He thought Kim Shin would be completely different from his past self.
‘Earth Resource. It might just become a company that moves the world.’
When he interviewed employees, he saw that each of them had grand dreams. That's why he had hardened his resolve.
‘I won’t be a burden to him. I will not fail.’
It was a three-bedroom apartment.
One room had been set up as a gaming room, but with Lee Jong-yeop’s arrival, the PCs had been moved to the living room.
On weekdays, he worked diligently, busy familiarizing himself with the operational structure of Earth Resource.
When the first weekend arrived, he planned to review employee files and study cloud computing, but…
“Here, try this.”
“Sorry?”
“Play it and let me know what you think. It's a very important task.”
From the morning, Oh Myeong-woo had him playing a game called Star Dew Valley on a living room computer.
A dilapidated farm, clearing wasteland, planting strawberries and potatoes.
“You’re good at this.”
“I’ve played it before.”
“You have?”
“I used to love games a lot back in middle and high school. Before I got into girls in college. I’ve been playing this game for a few months now.”
“Hmm. Dating is the enemy of gaming. For the sake of the gaming industry's development, everyone should be single.”
Kim Shin, who had woken up a little later, joined them after eating ramen for his first meal.
“Myeong-woo. Let’s play a ranked game.”
“You know it. Can’t give up our weekend LoL.”
The man who had created a unicorn company worth over a billion dollars in just a month.
Kim Shin was living even more comfortably than before.
“You guys are Gold. I know how to play LoL, too.”
“What’s your tier?”
Lee Jong-yeop logged into his Diamond 3 account.
* * *
I spent the weekend with Oh Myeong-woo and Lee Jong-yeop.
A perfect break of gaming all day from the morning, then going to a nearby restaurant for steak and beer in the evening.
After becoming rich, I never felt that spending money on food was a waste.
Ping!
A message arrived just as we were about to leave the restaurant.
- Lee Ho-yeon: We have a breakthrough in the vaccine development.
Biolife.
They were developing a vaccine and treatment for COVID-19.
I had already invested a lot of money, but the amount I had supported them with through mining was also immense.
‘They said even the major pharmaceutical companies would have a hard time developing a vaccine within the year.’
I knew the general situation from the news.
I had considered the possibility of failure and had no intention of blaming the people who had worked so hard.
- Kim Shin: Great work. What stage are you at?
- Lee Ho-yeon: We plan to start pre-clinical trials next week.
For a moment, I doubted the words on my phone screen.
- Kim Shin: What? Pre-clinical trials?
- Lee Ho-yeon: We’ve completed the design of the protein structure. Deep learning analysis indicates an immunity effect of over 90%, so we plan to proceed with pre-clinical trials.
- Kim Shin: Are you serious?
I knew Dr. Lee Ho-yeon was a researcher who had dedicated his life to a single field, but at this moment, he seemed like a con artist.
Vaccine development required passing pre-clinical trials and then Phase 1, 2, and 3 clinical trials.
Each stage took 15 to 30 months to thoroughly verify safety, so the total development period was estimated to be at least 10 years.
- Kim Shin: I don't know how many years it will take, but at least the first step is starting early.
- Lee Ho-yeon: John says we might be able to get fast-track approval in the US.
- Kim Shin: Really?
I couldn’t help but repeat the same word like a fool.
- Lee Ho-yeon: Yes. It seems the vaccine development period will be significantly shortened. That is, if there are few to no side effects, and it's effective.
Trillions of won could be invested in new drug development only for it to fail.
A vaccine was different from something like an anti-cancer drug, but still, for a company I invested in to actually produce something and move on to clinical trials…
- Lee Ho-yeon: Other major pharmaceutical companies will likely complete their development in about a month or two as well.
- Kim Shin: Is that so?
- Lee Ho-yeon: It seems those companies are developing it using the mRNA method.
It was a word I had never heard before.
I could look up what mRNA was on the internet later.
- Kim Shin: You’ve all worked so hard.
- Lee Ho-yeon: Not at all. We still don’t know how effective the vaccine will be.
- Kim Shin: The fact that you actually made it is what’s important. It’s okay even if it fails. Please keep working until COVID is completely eradicated.
- Lee Ho-yeon: That is my dream. Thank you.
* * *
The St. Regis New York hotel.
Seven men were gathered in a suite.
Jim and Kwon Do-jin, who had visited Kim Shin before, were also present.
“Looks like the Fed is helping our business.”
“The US government, too. Massive fiscal spending will inevitably draw attention to cryptocurrency.”
The New York stock market crash was a painful event for ordinary investors, but conversely, it could put cryptocurrencies in the spotlight.
The value of currencies like the dollar, yen, and euro could plummet due to the printing power of politicians and central banks.
That was why Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were started—to create a trustworthy currency.
In reality, due to extreme volatility, they were traded more as investment assets than for their original purpose.
“Source Coin has been gaining popularity. That company’s ability to execute its business plan is astounding.”
The founder of a coin exchange spoke.
“Many coin communities are paying close attention to Source Coin. Its potential and development speed are record-breaking.”
A whale who held a large amount of cryptocurrency added.
“Source Coin could become a black hole in Silicon Valley. I’m concerned the coins we created will be buried.”
Even a man from a European financial family who had invested a fortune in crypto was there.
Those who built their businesses around cryptocurrency had gathered in this room.
Jim said with a smile, “Don’t you all worry. I met the man himself.”
“You did, Jim?”
“I met him with Do-jin here. He’ll be joining us soon.”
“Joining us?”
“He won’t be able to refuse an opportunity to make a great deal of money.”
“If the company that issued Source Coin joins forces with us, our business will become so much easier. It would be a win-win for everyone.”
They would link the coins they held or had issued to Source Coin.
They judged that this alone would generate an enormous wealth effect for each of their coins.
“Then we’ll need to increase the number of coin types.”
“Why?”
“The coins known to the public have already been sold off, so our stakes are small. Newly created coins have a higher rate of return than those with a total value exceeding several hundred million dollars.”
“We’ll have to brainstorm some ideas.”
“Let’s each invest two million dollars and create about seven coins. They could end up being worth two billion dollars.”