[Chapter 473: Bill, you need to try a little harder.]
Back in his old haunt in Seattle, Bill Gates began to feel conflicted. He knew very well that Microsoft was only temporarily ahead in the operating system market for IBM PCs. At IBM's board meeting, shareholders had already expressed dissatisfaction.
The reasons were simple: the IBM PC had not met sales expectations. A whole cluster of compatible machine manufacturers was steadily eating away at the market that originally belonged to them.
At least, that was how the Big Blue saw it. In just a few short years, Compaq had made its way into the Fortune 500 club. Although its rank was lower, it was still something to be proud of.
For industry leader IBM, it was hard to have a good attitude. They say that companies that set industry standards are amazing, but looking at the current IBM, it seemed to be nearly beaten to a pulp by Compaq.
Bill Gates knew his time was running out. IBM must be regretting that if they had used their own operating system, the situation might have been different.
"Bill, the 80486 has officially been released. If your new system can't keep up in time, even though White System won't develop it, they might invest in other companies."
"I know, William. By the end of the year, you'll see the test version."
"Very good. I look forward to it. Just hope there are fewer patches. You know, too many patches will increase disk load."
"I understand. The tech department will do their best to avoid that."
"Keep it up, I'm counting on you," he said before hanging up. Well, the wealthy man's dark humor had struck again; Bill Gates was still weak enough to tease.
"Bastard, that bastard! Damn it, patches increase disk load, you jerk." After hanging up, Bill couldn't help but explode with anger. But it was just anger. He realized that William White didn't intend to go against him; he merely wanted to humiliate him a bit.
As a second-generation standard-bearer with all sorts of genius titles, Bill was undoubtedly quite proud. What troubled him the most was that after William White emerged, the glow surrounding him quickly dimmed, and no one praised him as a genius anymore.
In this world, comparisons were futile; no matter how talented you were, someone could simply say, "You're pretty good, just not as good as William White."
Once that line came out, there was little point in continuing a conversation unless you truly had the qualifications to compete with that guy. Living in the same era as William White was indeed frustrating.
...
Blissfully unaware of others' frail egos, William White walked further down the path of a jerk. He knew full well that Bill Gates wasn't exactly easygoing. If he didn't poke at him hard, that jerk would keep pretending to be genteel.
Faced with repeated blows, Bill Gates didn't disappoint William White. His wrath was naturally directed at the poor executives.
All employees are like this; whether they are coders or dockworkers, when there is no immense external pressure, they choose to work leisurely.
However, when that leisure came at the cost of unemployment, they were still remarkably efficient. Whether they developed psychological scars or not wasn't something William White needed to worry about. Bill Gates remained responsible for these guys' medical expenses.
...
"Sir, the B-class car is finalized, and the factory would like you to oversee it."
"Well, let's arrange that; this model is the flagship."
"Sir, we might consider increasing factory capacity. Given the current market performance, these two factories clearly can't meet the demand."
Filson never would have expected that the project his boss insisted on was actually quite promising.
"Alright, let's set the European factories in Hamburg and London. We can also add one down under, and the two existing factories can kick off their second phase."
"Okay, I'll make the arrangements right away."
Today's car sales not only surprised outsiders but also left William White astonished. Tesla's cars were not just popular in America; they were also performing well in Europe.
Facing Tesla's renewed financing window, American investment banks dropped their pretenses. They weren't concerned about Tesla needing money; they were worried the company wouldn't want to share too much equity.
Such is the nature of the capital market; there's no such thing as lending a helping hand. They were more than willing to sprinkle a little more gold on top of success, even hoping to fuel the fire.
Tesla resembled memory chip manufacturers -- a classic Wall Street model. The capital markets had started to see that this wealthy figure didn't plan to hog all the profits. Whether you kept up or not was up to your judgment.
In contrast, European and Australian investors were more optimistic about these two projects, putting Wall Street elites in an awkward position. They had to explain to their clients why their judgments had once again gone awry.
Their clients must have wanted to know how these folks managed investment funds when they weren't investing in such great businesses. Was it true that Wall Street elites had fallen to a level below even the investment advisors of desert tycoons?
Look at that Legendary World; the desert tycoons must be ecstatic. After a whirlwind event, American and European investors significantly offloaded their shares, which turned out to be a bargain for the Australians and desert tycoons.
...
The upcoming 1990s would be a booming era for computers. This decade was critical; if you established an advantage in any field, you could make a boatload of cash -- lots and lots.
Of course, this was also a time when only the fittest survive. Once you were pushed out of the first tier, there'd be no future for you.
William White thought about how the Big Blue must regret its decisions. If they'd chosen to cooperate with him, wouldn't that have been a strong teaming up in some sense?
Did they really think they could easily manipulate a smaller company?
Ha, how could Bill be a puppet? While a bunch of decaying old fogies were still dreaming, he was already gearing up for a comeback.
In truth, his thinking was somewhat one-sided. The Big Blue was still knee-deep in antitrust troubles, and until they reached a settlement with the Justice Department, any exclusive agreements could lead to complications.
"Tom, we need to speed up the programming for the office software. I heard Bill is asking employees to work overtime and is running into a lot of trouble." William White chuckled, perhaps a bit gleefully.
"Sir, no holidays sounds pretty harsh."
"Hahaha, harsh, Tom? No work is what's truly harsh. Let's volunteer for a bit of overtime; we'll double the pay. Also, if we need to promote outstanding employees, those who enjoy work should take on a bigger load."
Tom silently chuckled; capitalists were all the same. The difference was that his own boss was a bit more generous.
*****
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