President Han Jeong-hoon had returned from the United States.
After spending nearly a month coordinating detailed plans with the Quantum Fund, his face looked noticeably worn.
A meal was arranged at Captain Kang’s Korean restaurant for a regular catch-up.
Han Jeong-hoon devoured the herbal ginseng chicken stew and only after drinking the broth did color return to his face.
“It seems Koreans really need to eat Korean food. I feel like all the grease stuck in my ...
President Han personally led his team and headed to the United States.
For the time being, Vice Chairman Park Mandeuk would take charge of Taewoo Securities, while President Han focused on devising plans with the Quantum Fund to prepare for the European financial crisis.
There was a faint sense of emptiness.
Just as I began to feel the void left by President Han’s absence, Team Leader Chun Minjeong came to headquarters to meet me after a long time.
“Your face l...
The New Year of 2010 had arrived.
Grandfather still hadn’t returned from Vietnam, so I spent the New Year in Captain Kang’s conference room, cooking and eating ramen with President Han.
“Isn’t ramen a bit much for New Year’s? Why don’t we just go out for a proper meal?”
“But it’s New Year’s, so I even added dumplings. And what’s wrong with ramen?”
Slurp!
A brief moment of complaint, and then it was over.
We devoured the ramen a...
It was a few days before the end of 2009.
Fukuda, the director of the Economic Research Institute, came to see me.
When I became chairman, I had promoted him from adviser to director of the institute, and he had been submitting reports monthly or quarterly ever since.
However, he had always reported in writing. He had never requested a face-to-face meeting like this before, which made me suspect that the contents of this report were unusual.
“Director Fukuda, it’s ...
2025-10-05 17:05:53 +0000 UTC View PostThe short-selling forces moved astonishingly quickly.
They were the same group who publicly announced the withdrawal of their Tesla short positions to various media outlets.
A major U.S. newspaper ran a front-page photo showing a humbled Wall Street hedge fund manager on one side and a man in traditional Saudi attire standing confidently in front of them.
“Just by looking at the newspaper, you can tell what kind of deal they struck with the Saudi sovereign fund.”
...
2025-10-05 17:05:44 +0000 UTC View PostAfter finishing the countermeasure meeting, Seok-won left the WB Bank headquarters, seeing off President Go Youngil and the other executives. He sank into the plush backseat and gazed expressionlessly out the car window.
The faint, pleasant smell of leather reached his nose as the large Mercedes sedan glided down the road, its engine almost inaudible.
As he stared across the wide Han River at the rows of apartment complexes, he organized in his head the conversations from the me...
The cat family, now fully part of the household, huddled together on the garden lawn, grooming one another and letting out soft meows.
“How can they get along so well?”
Madam Jo Deokrye said this with a fond expression, holding a teacup of black tea in her hand.
Watching the cats play beyond the living room’s wide glass windows naturally brought a warm smile to her lips.
Just then, Chairman Park Taehong, who had come home late the previous night after drinkin...
“This matter, handle it as is.”
“Yes, sir.”
After passing the approval folder to Chief Secretary Gil Seong-ho, who sat on his right, Chairman Park Tae-hong leaned back against the plush leather sofa.
“By the way, have you heard? Honorary Chairman Jeong of Hyunwoo Group has promoted his fifth son, the one overseeing the electronics division, to co-chairman.”
“Yes. I understand that very move has stirred up a lot of talk in the business community.”
A few days later, Moscow, Russia.
Across the river, shrouded in heavy darkness, stood the rugged silhouette of the Russian Federation government building. At a nearby pier, a large black Mercedes sedan was parked.
It was late at night. With not a single streetlamp lit, the desolate outdoor parking lot felt eerily empty, and the riverside road beyond was nearly devoid of traffic.
Inside the sedan, engine off, Seok-won sat alone in the back seat. With the window slightly lo...
The next day.
I pressed my temples as I headed into the Finance Tower.
Vice Chairman Han, who knew I’d spent a long time at the Blue House yesterday, brought me a glass of honey water.
“Did your talks with the Blue House go well?”
“Phew… I can’t tell if what happened is something to be happy about or not.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’re saying they’ll entrust part of the National Pension Fund to Finance Tower.”
“Is tha...
I drank with Bin Salman for over ten hours.
At Captain Kang’s villa, after he had finished all his official schedules in Korea, we enjoyed every kind of liquor imaginable.
It wasn’t until daylight that we came to our senses.
Only after seeing him off to the airport could I finally head into headquarters.
“Chairman, are you all right?”
“It’s been a while since I drank that much. It’s hard to pull myself together.”
“I’ll bring you so...
“Deputy Hwang, did you finish the proposal we talked about yesterday?”
Chief Manager Shim Jong-su of Bluehole Venture Capital’s Planning Department, a man with a stocky build, walked into the office holding a document folder in one hand as he asked.
“I just need to wrap it up.”
Deputy Manager Hwang Moo-sung, who was sitting at his desk, turned his head to answer.
“We need to report it to the Executive Director tomorrow morning. Finish it quickly and bri...
Charlie Scalley, team leader of Alcon Korea, the asset management subsidiary of Goldman Sachs, knocked on the door and stepped inside.
Seated at his desk in a relaxed posture was Tom Wilson, the blond-haired CEO, engaged in a phone call with someone.
“Hahaha. Of course. Everything is proceeding smoothly, so you have nothing to worry about.”
Still holding the receiver, Wilson tilted his head slightly and gestured with one hand toward the sofa in the middle of the room,...
Bin Salman had visited Korea a year earlier.
But his status then and now were worlds apart.
Having been formally appointed Crown Prince, the South Korean government prepared an elaborate state-level reception in his honor.
Thus, on his first day, he attended government ceremonies.
It wasn’t until the following day that he was able to visit Taewoo Group’s headquarters.
“Your Highness, Crown Prince bin Salman, welcome.”
“Why so formal between us? ...
Captain Kang returned safely to Korea.
I breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of him calmly organizing his equipment in the office.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Contrary to what we feared, the operation went very smoothly. The assassin had some training, but the mistakes he made suggested he wasn't professionally trained."
"Erase what happened in Malaysia from your memory. Just remember it as the time you helped an emergency patient."
There could be in...
A week had passed since the Apple Car launch.
Yet, rather than declining, sales were showing the unusual trend of continuing to rise.
The planning director, who had come to report, couldn’t hide the smile on his face.
“Apple Car sales have finally surpassed 100,000 units.”
“You said it would take about two weeks, but we’ve reached 100,000 in just one week.”
“Sales kept climbing, which shortened the expected period. The response in the Chinese m...
The long-awaited Apple Car launch day.
The launch occurred simultaneously worldwide, but due to time zones, sales began first in Asia.
On the large monitor in the chairman’s office, real-time updates of sales by country were displayed.
The head of planning had gathered various pieces of information and reported them to me.
“Currently, the countries that have started sales are South Korea, China, Taiwan, and Japan.”
“China’s sales a...
Chanos, known as the King of Short Selling, had founded Kynikos—a hedge fund considered one of the top on Wall Street.
It was also the company at the center of the Tesla short-selling operation, serving as the command hub for the short-selling forces.
“Mr. Chanos! What’s going on? You said Tesla had virtually no defense capabilities. So why is the Saudi sovereign wealth fund moving?”
“This was unexpected. I had heard that the Saudis were taking interest in vario...
The employees of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund were elites.
Most of them had experience working at investment firms on Wall Street, while others were talents cultivated in Saudi Arabia as economic experts.
Perhaps that was why.
They all greeted me with friendly smiles.
“When I first learned that Chairman Kim Min-jae was the true owner of SAVE Investment, I was truly shocked. I never imagined that the heir to a major Korean conglomerate could be manipulating Wal...
The next morning at 6 a.m.
I arrived at the office to coincide with the Nasdaq market close.
President Han, who had stayed up all night at Taewoo Securities, rushed straight into the chairman’s office.
“It closed at $24. That’s a 40% increase in just one day. At one point, it even surpassed the $25 mark.”
“This momentum will likely continue for a while. By the way, how many Tesla shares were sold?”
“Over 11 million shares were sold, and of thos...
8,000 in the queue.
That was the number of people waiting on the Apple Car pre-order site I refreshed before leaving work.
It was a queue reminiscent of booking train tickets during a holiday rush, and I arrived at the office early that morning, filled with anticipation.
I wasn’t the only one excited.
President Han Jeong-hoon and the planning director were already waiting for me, and even before I entered the chairman’s office, they brought good news.
...
Only the final U.S. schedule remained.
It was a meeting with Musk of Tesla, who was creating an electric car to compete with the Apple Car.
For the electric vehicle market to grow, multiple companies needed to enter, and Musk’s Tesla could be a strong running mate.
“Mr. Kim! It’s been a long time!”
“Seeing you in the U.S. after meeting in the Marshall Islands feels quite different.”
“Have you heard the news? The fifth rocket launch was a succes...
Trust meant stability.
To increase trust in Bitcoin, it was necessary to make customers feel that it was safe.
However, Dimon misunderstood Bitcoin itself.
When I brought up the topic of trust, he questioned Bitcoin’s very nature.
“Isn’t Bitcoin built on distrust? Since nothing can be trusted, I thought Bitcoin, with its perfect cryptographic system, has value.”
“Distrust doesn’t mean it denies trust—it means it’s reliable enough that trust i...
I spent two full days in idea meetings with Steve.
Steve pressed me relentlessly, as if torturing me, trying to extract every single idea I had in my head.
“Too bad. I’d like to continue the idea meetings for at least another week, but neither Chairman Kim nor I have that kind of time…”
“Can’t we just continue the idea meetings the next time I come to the U.S.?”
“I might as well go to Korea instead. I’ll make sure to visit before the year ends.”...
The Apple Car’s features didn’t stop at collision avoidance.
To be called truly innovative, it needed much more—and the next feature to be unveiled was remote parking.
“When we consulted with insurance companies, they told us that over 30% of accidents occur while parking,” Steve explained. “Even skilled drivers make mistakes, and parking remains one of the most common causes of crashes. But Apple Car owners won’t have to worry about that. The car will park itself....
Every year in June, the Apple Developers Conference was held.
But this year, the schedule had been delayed by nearly two months, and only a handful of people knew the reason why.
Of course, I was one of those few who knew the reason, and so did Steve.
“Are you feeling confident? Or indifferent? The developer conference is only a day away, and you show up just now? I’ve been preparing for the rehearsal since a month ago.”
“There was a lot to handle back in K...
Hyundai Motors.
Before my regression, it had almost monopolized the Korean market.
Now, however, it had been pushed to second place by Taewoo Group.
Still, the gap wasn’t that large, and the Korean market was essentially divided between Taewoo and Hyundai Motors.
Both groups were constantly striving to take market share from the other.
But when we faced each other directly, we wore masks and pretended to be cordial.
“Chairman Kim, it’s been a lo...
Today, I didn’t go to the company—I went to Captain Kang’s office instead.
Since we had arranged it in advance, President Han was already there, waiting for me.
“Chairman, this same-day delivery service is absolutely amazing. I placed an order and received the items in just six hours. And the overnight delivery—this is truly groundbreaking. I never imagined a world where I could have fresh groceries delivered in the middle of the night and prepare breakfast the next mo...
Rocket officially launched.
We literally splashed cash on the launch promotion.
Turn on the TV, listen to the radio, search a portal, scroll social media—Rocket ads were everywhere.
The opening momentum was explosive, as expected.
The planning director reported an extremely hot market response.
“Over a million visits in a single day. We now have more than 1.3 million sign-ups, and the growth curve isn’t flattening—it’s accelerating.”
“Th...
What does it mean to think on the scale of an oil tycoon?
I listened closely as Governor Abdulaziz spoke about the scale of electric vehicle infrastructure investment.
“Through Taewoo Refining, Aramco will cover half the cost of building charging stations in Korea. And through our gas stations and refineries operating in the United States, we’ll also install charging stations in major U.S. cities.”
“You’re even supporting infrastructure in the United States? Tha...