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Billionaire chronicles: Jason’s Dominion episode 3

Moneymaker Name: Jason Li
Age: 38 years
Nationality: Chinese
Industry: Technology, enterprise financing
Net worth: $20.3 billion
Chronicle:

At fifteen, Jason learnt a lifetime lesson on customer satisfaction. He had as an act of kindness offered to repair an elderly neighbour’s broken-down television set and was inclined to do it for free. In carrying out the repairs however,, he discovered his neighbour’s TV needed an electronic part that would cost significantly more money than he was willing to spend from his own pocket. There was an alternative though, a much cheaper one at that but the hitch was that the alternative was notoriously unreliable and could inflict further damage than previously existing if it went wrong. Jason decided to take the gamble of using the cheaper alternative but as a possible buffer he warned his neighbour not about the nature of his little indiscretion but about the effect power-cuts could have on her television after its repair, knowing quite well that in their part of the city those days it was nigh impossible not to experience power-cuts but that bit of forewarning gave him leverage to pass the bulk if and when his neighbour’s TV went bad again. Ironically, shortly after he returned the TV set to his neighbour, her daughter, an air hostess in Beijing bought her a brand new TV set much to her delight. Delight that did not last long, as the new TV set was irreparably damaged by a power surge from a restoration of power following a power cut. So effectively, it was thus back to using her old TV for Jason’s neighbour, who was very thankful for the diligent job he had done repairing her reliable old TV so much so, she needed not greatly mourn the loss of her more modern box. Lesson learnt for Jason here was that a customer must always be given the impression that what they have been given is the best there is, even if it is nowhere near the best of what is truly on offer. Jason took to this lesson like a fish to water or better yet, like water to more water.

Elumination: Copper is not gold but passed off as gold and received as same without scrutiny, copper is unlikely to complain.

[Thank you for reading dear nairalanders, please share to friends and contacts to improve our stories' reach]

Twitter: @eluminary1

magnus est enim Deus noster super omnes deos.

Billionaire chronicles: Toto’s Kingdom episode 3

Moneymaker Name: Salvatore “Toto” Bergamo

Age: 42 years

Nationality: Italian (half Greek by maternal descent)

Industry: Narcotics, fashion, hospitality and entertainment

Net worth: $16.8 billion

Chronicle:

Toto Bergamo grew up in the beautiful city of Madrid Spain, raised by his mother, the Grecian goddess Natasha under the protection of Don Vicente, the affable gangster boss who to the rest of the world was a big-time wine merchant taking the best products of Spanish vineyards to tables across Europe and all the world. To those in the know though, Don Vicente’s wine business had been taking hefty losses for years and had never been profitable, although in truth, it did not need to be. His real business was an international narcotics syndicate that made money for him faster and incomparably more reliably than his mechanized wine presses could churn out bottles of wine. It was from Don Vicente that Toto learnt the fine arts of subtlety and stealth. He used to go to great lengths to explain things to Toto; his favourite example being that when passing off gold as worthless iron, you must show no great apprehension if someone tries to cart away what all see and accept as iron, because you want that person to flee as one who has stolen iron not as one who has stolen gold. Pursuit in such a case of the ‘iron’ thief must be conducted with a façade of half-heartedness even if one’s heart beats frantically for every second gained by the thief. However, the Don would always say this part with a smile, “when the thief is caught; he must be dealt with as one who stole gold not as one who stole iron”. These were the sort of management lessons Toto was receiving from an early age from his godfather, Don Vicente.

Elumination: A crocodile with good manners is no less a crocodile.

Twitter: @eluminary1

magnus est enim Deus noster super omnes deos.

Billionaire chronicles: Macca's Dynasty episode 1

Moneymaker Name: Mish Abdula a.k.a “Macca”

Age: 27 years

Nationality: American (naturalized, Pakistani by descent)

Industry: Arms and armament

Net worth: $4.3 billion

Chronicle:

When Mish’s parents first came to the US, they were without any material possessions of any significance save for $150 that represented their combined life savings and the hope of likely shelter from Mish’s maternal uncle who had been in the US for over a decade before that time. Uncle Rio as he was called by Mish (his real name was Zubair but he had long stopped introducing himself by that name) was the one who became Mish’s true father when he arrived in the US a starry eyed six year old boy who was very shy and had an obvious accent when he did speak. It was uncle Rio who changed his name from Waleed to Mish despite his parent’s heavy protestations and displeasure. Rio made them understand that in the part of L.A where they lived it was always better to blend in rather than stand out as easy as your first name. Mish’s parents didn’t have much of a choice anyway, Rio was their benefactor and the singular reason they were able to get into the US in the first place. At that time, his ‘suggestions’ were actually law and Mish’s parents knew too well the peril of having too strong an opinion of their own. Rio had done well for himself in the local mafia, having risen from a starter to become the bosses’ right hand man; a position that ensured he had money and power in significant quanta according of course to the spectrum the local mafia operated in. Yet Rio wanted more, much more than his position could provide him; much more than even his bosses’ position could provide.

Elumination: Dream big, after all, they are free.

Twitter: @eluminary1

magnus est enim Deus noster super omnes deos.

Billionaire chronicles: Jason’s Dominion episode 2

Moneymaker Name: Jason Li
Age: 38 years
Nationality: Chinese
Industry: Technology, enterprise financing
Net worth: $20.3 billion
Chronicle:

Jason Li’s first major contract propelled him and his budding company to heights he had hitherto only attained in his dreams. It was a big break for him and an eye opener as to the power of having influence in government in the society he did business in, so much so that he devoted himself to building a power-network over the next few years that paid off handsomely in many respects not least of which was the rapid expansion of what used to be a non-existent business empire. To be able to milk the sincere admiration and praise he was now receiving from his family members who never previously believed in his dreams especially his father was just a surreal experience. His mother in fairness to her had been his only supporter in those wilderness days and her apparent pride at his new found success was for him the icing of the cake. Jason made several crucial smart calls in the aftermath of getting his big break, the top two of which was buying out his partner less than two years into the take-off of the company exploiting that buy-out clause that looked almost prescient in retrospect, the other was his marriage to the daughter of the man who would a year from becoming his father-in-law become the Premier of the State Council; the second most powerful man in all of China. It meant Jason’s already impressive power-network got a massive boost and all bets were off over whether he would become a titan of Chinese business… he already was.

Elumination: Not many keys are needed to open a lock, just one; the right one.

[Thank you for reading dear nairalanders, please share to friends and contacts to improve our stories' reach]

Twitter: follow @eluminary1

magnus est enim Deus noster super omnes deos.

Billionaire chronicles: Toto’s Kingdom episode 2(Nairaland edit)

Moneymaker Name: Salvatore “Toto” Bergamo
Age: 42 years
Nationality: Italian (half Greek by maternal descent)
Industry: Narcotics, fashion, hospitality and entertainment
Net worth: $16.8 billion
Chronicle:

Toto Bergamo employed a half dozen female and another half dozen male staff in his caffè da Toto as stool pigeons whose only job was to interact with customers usually shoppers and fashionistas who thronged the mall in an endless drove and pick the most useful bits of gossip off them. The pigeon that brought Toto the most valuable information every week got a tidy bonus, so that his pigeons got very good at sifting through the dross and getting down to the gold quickly. From the information, Toto gleaned from his pigeons, he learnt a lot about the secret and not-so-secret happenings within Milan’s fashion universe. He had information on both the saintly and devilish alike, so that he could plot his own moves with a little more prescience than his would-be industry competitors. A year after arriving Milan and eight months after establishing caffè da Toto, Signore Bergamo launched his own fashion brand name- The House of Bergamo featuring a prêt-à-porter label: Jinx by Bergamo and a bespoke line: Suave by Bergamo. Every province of the world has its governing forces, the city of Milan was no different and those that were of Milan embraced this young adventurer named Salvatore Bergamo. The house of Bergamo prospered beyond Toto’s dreams. They were tagged by the fashion world as the flagship of a new generation of upscale designers who understood the meaning of the rather surreal phrase: “affordable luxury”. The House of Bergamo’s premier store was a million-dollar affair complete with sublime aesthetics exceptionally primed for the experiential and even by Toto Bergamo’s own high standards, he outdid himself this time. He had told the stores interior design team that the effect he sought to create was one that would make visitors to the store “leave the place bearing new dreams”, thus no expense was spared to achieve the aura of the incomparable.

Elumination: Revere not a thing as impossible, it will remain so.

Twitter: Follow @eluminary1

magnus est enim Deus noster super omnes deos.

Billionaire chronicles: Jason’s Dominion episode 1

Moneymaker Name: Jason Li
Age: 38 years
Nationality: Chinese
Industry: Technology, enterprise financing
Net worth: $20.3 billion
Chronicle:

Growing up in the slums of Guangzhou city, Jason knew only two things. The first was that he hated school and the second was that he loved electronics. He just had this natural affinity for electronics and would spend his time taking apart and reconfiguring any electronic he could lay his hand s on. When he first discovered at age eleven, the mysteries embedded in computer programming code, he might as well have been injected with addictive serum. At sixteen, Jason dropped out of school to start his first tech business and never missed it but his first tech start-up was a colossal failure. So also were the next dozen or so attempts such that his father, a retired traffic officer who had spent the best years of his life waving on and halting all manner of automobiles from the luxurious to the ludicrous, without ever actually owning one; told him (Jason) that his life was a wasted breath. In his early thirties, broke and in debt yet still highly defiant, Jason made a friend who was the son of an influential party member, a master of excess whether it was in alcohol, partying, women or crack but he still retained enough sanity to recognize genius when he saw it. The unlikely duo formed a company off their partnership, each maintaining a fifty percent stake in the new venture although Jason had a buy-out clause for his partner’s stake inserted into their binding agreement. Their first government contract for an indigenous software solution for the public schools database followed shortly after and off that single contract, Jason made more money than he had ever made in his entire life. That was the beginning of a new life for Mr. Li.

Elumination: A spectacular sign may not always precede a spectacular event.

Twitter: @eluminary1

magnus est enim Deus noster super omnes deos.

Billionaire chronicles: Toto’s Kingdom episode 1(Nairaland edit)

Moneymaker Name: Salvatore “Toto” Bergamo
Age: 42 years
Nationality: Italian (half Greek by maternal descent)
Industry: Narcotics, fashion, hospitality and entertainment
Net worth: $16.8 billion
Chronicle:

Milan was the place Toto turned to for the launch of his business front-end which he had long decided would be in fashion. Whilst a most fashionable man himself, Toto knew very little about the actual business of fashion aside the myths and legends passed down by hearsay about the most iconic fashion labels in the world. Creating his own fashion brand was thus a challenge that excited him as much as it also made him nervous. He had an initial start-up capital of $2 million made available to him by Don Vicente, which for that time and age gave him a formidable war-chest although money alone was not enough to break into the closely guarded world of high fashion. He had always been a strong believer in the power of reconnaissance to tip the scale in any battle though, so for this particular onslaught, his strategy was to open a posh coffee shop in central Milan’s iconic shopping mall, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. With rental space there an impossibility to secure, there was sure to be a story in how he got his shop there. A popular American fast food franchisee that had been a tenant ten years in the galleria had its lease up for renewal but the franchisee was shocked when its lease renewal application was turned down by the city council and the shop allotted to Toto Bergamo instead. That was a direct result of the Mayor’s behind-the-scene intervention; Toto had him in his trench coat pocket thanks to ‘privileged information’ he possessed on his extra-marital affairs. Mr. Mayor could scarce afford any of that coming out since his wife was his chief benefactor who had picked him up from dirt and polished him into the revered gentleman he now was. Of course there were threats of litigation but those too died a natural death when the franchise’s owner was made to understand that only the living benefit from litigation; thus was born caffè da Toto.

Elumination: Even though the mighty thrive, the lowly too must survive.

Twitter: @eluminary1

magnus est enim Deus noster super omnes deos.