The Famous Millionaire

Jaegyong’s eyes welled with tears as he watched Sungrak leave.

Hyunwoo felt he should not let Sungrak leave like that, so he quickly followed to take him by the wrist and said, “May I have a few words with you?”

He looked at Hyunwoo with scared eyes as if he were wary of lenders, “Who the hell are you?”

“My name is Hyunwoo Jang. Do you happen to know Hyunwoo’s mother?”

“Ah! I’ve heard about her from the director,” said Sungrak, much relieved, at last.

“Did you borrow from private lenders?”

“Yes, 20 million won…”

It was what Hyunwoo expected, but he could not understand why Sungrak had to lead such a nervous life because of that loan.

“Don’t you think you can pay off the loan if you tried a harder? You don’t have to flee like this…”

“Well, even if I promise them I’ll pay off the balance within a short period of time, they won’t let me. The problem is that I can’t make that much within a couple of months, and I can’t borrow from others anymore.”

Actually, things were tough for him. No matter how hard he worked, things didn’t work out well on any job he did. Even if he got a job, his lenders came to see him almost everyday, calling the debt on him, so he got fired.

Fortunately, the total amount of his private loan was 20 million won. Excluding 30% interest of that in advance, he got only 14 million won. And he had to pay at 2.9% compound interest every month.

Hyunwoo trusted the director, and he also felt something trustworthy from Jaegyong’s attitude, “Let me lend you 20 million won. How soon can you pay it back?”

“Really? You want to lend the money to a faulty product like me?”

At the moment, Hyunwoo’s face was slightly distorted. Though Sungrak was good and sincere, his mindset was wrong, he felt. Isn’t it hard to make it in this society even if one tries hard, trusting one’s talent? It would be much harder if one didn’t know how to respect oneself. He would have to change his mindset first, Hyunwoo thought.

“There are no faulty products in the world. They just drift because they can’t find proper use for themselves. No matter how able one may be, one would think of oneself as a faulty product if one doesn’t find any use for oneself.”

Sungrak didn’t say anything as if he saw eye to eye. Maybe it’s not because he agreed with Hyunwoo, but because he would get the loan.

“Do you happen to know about Post-It-Notes? I mean the sticky piece of paper that you attach to books or documents.”

“Yes, I do,” said Sungrak, nodding his head.

“Actually, it was a faulty product that came out when the developer originally wanted to make a good glue. Initially, it had no use at all. However, the developer didn’t think it was a faulty product and found the use for it. That’s how the Post-It-Note came out. Thanks to that, the developer’s company grew into a blue chip.”

Having heard that, Sungrak slowly lifted his head, as if he felt something.

Hyunwoo continued, “I think you haven’t yet found a job befitting your talent. This world could be yours if you found that kind of job, so don’t lose your confidence. Only that way can you succeed.”

“I really appreciate what you have said to me. You’re the first man to talk to me like that, Brother Hyunwoo. And I won’t give up. Someday, I’ll make lots of money and pay off my friend’s balance, too.”

“You should. You have to believe in your capability, so you can work harder. Let me lend you 20 million won. Annual interest rate is 5%, and let me get your IOU. You can pay off within three years.”

“If you could be kind enough to do so, I’d be very much obliged. I’ll never forget your favor. Thanks a million.”

Both of them promised to meet the next day.

Though Hyunwoo wanted to take him back to the wedding ceremony, he refused, saying that he was too ashamed to see them.

Hyunwoo went back to the orphanage alone. The wedding ceremony was frugal and simple. As the couple was in financial difficulties, they skipped almost everything. Their honeymoon would be a two-night-three-day trip to Anmyon Island.

Nonetheless, the bride and the groom were all happy. The guests congratulated them from the bottom of their hearts, so did Hyunwoo, hoping their life would be a bed of roses.

At the same time, Hyunwoo wanted to help them. If he asked a favor of Noh Yoran, the travel agency president, he could get cheaper tickets to Jeju Island for them, but he felt the tickets would not be of any help to them. Rather, they might get hurt.

If Hyunwoo really wanted to help them, he should be a real help for their life, he thought.

And what he heard from Sungrak made him feel heavy.

Faulty products like us.

Hyunwoo thought there were no faulty products in the world. If there were, it’s only in their thinking, not themselves. He wanted to have the bride and the groom feel the same. As the couple were very sincere, they could make it if Hyunwoo opened the way for them.

How can I open the way for them?

Hyunwoo went back to his routine daily life. And then he got a call from Sungji.

Sungji abruptly said something unexpected.

“What did you say? You want me to sell other companies’ products there?” asked Hyunwoo.

According to Sungji, as the sales drastically went up after N&C opened sales offices in Korea and Japan, the presidents of other factories in Vietnam asked Sungji to sell their products.

“You don’t have to worry. I made sure N&C Korea and you stay out of this deal. Can you help me, Hyunwoo? Don’t you think it’s beneficial to N&C Korea to expand its business?”

What Sungji said made sense, but it was something Hyunwoo alone couldn’t decide. He had to ask for the opinion of Sungwoo Paek and Unhye Kim.

“Let me discuss with some others and then get back to you.”

“Thanks. Hope you can accept my request, taking into my position here,” said Sungji.

After the call, Hyunwoo called Sungwoo to discuss Sungji’s proposal.

Sungwoo said very positively, “I think that’s a good idea. Actually, I was feeling kind of at my limits with my sales efforts on castor products. I checked out almost all the factories that might be interested in our products. New products will be good sales items, I think.”

“Okay, then. Let me okay Sungji’s proposal.”

“Sure. Let me offer you a proposal, too. Why don’t we open a retailer market?”

“Retail market? Are you talking about selling castors to retailers?”

“Yea. When I go around here and there for sales activities, there are lots of potential retailers who want to buy small quantities like several hundreds or one thousand. That will come up to a lot if we combine all of them. Don’t you think so?”

It looked like a very good idea, but there were several obstacles when Hyunwoo thought about it.

First of all, he needed a large warehouse. As he couldn’t’t order a small number of castors from the N&C factory in Vietnam, he had to order lots of them and then store them in the warehouse.

Next were the personnel expenses. It would require manual work to receive orders and ship them. He would need to hire at least two men to take care of that.

Lastly, he would need additional capital. So far, he received the money from the buyers and then sent it back to N&C in Vietnam, but the new retail market would require that N&C Korea first buy the products and then sell them to retailers. However, this money issue would be easily solved when Hyunwoo discussed it with Sungji. As Hyunwoo already had enough credit, he would have no problem with persuading Sungji about sending the money to him only after selling the products first. Namely, it was something like sale on commission.

As for the personal expenses, Hyunwoo felt he could take care of that with a good match of the sales price and the commission rate on the sales. Sungji would not insist on the existing division ratio of six to four or seven to three.

“Alright, Sungwoo. Let’s give it a try. Anway, you’re going to the United States next year, so you had better think about that, too.”

After the call, Hyunwoo began to think seriously about this new retail business.

The biggest headache was hiring.

“How can I hire them? One wrong employee would give me lots of headache.”

Hyunwoo wanted to hire someone who he could team up with like a family member. That would require hiring the type of person who not only worked well but also who was healthy and sincere, above all. The best way would be to hire someone he knew well, but he couldn’t think of anyone at the moment.

Then, someone suddenly came to his mind. They were Jaegyong and Sungrak. He felt he could trust them.

When Hyunwoo thought of them, it looked like even the warehouse problem could be solved easily. It occurred to him that there was a shabby warehouse on the road, which he noticed while he was in and out of the orphanage, located about 300 meters away from the orphanage. The warehouse was hardly used before. It was outdated and small, but with some renovation, it could be a great use for his purpose.

Hyunwoo waited for the arrival of the weekend, and then headed to the orphanage. He felt there was someone at the orphanage who might know about the warehouse, and he also wanted to do background check on both Jaegyong and Sungrak one more time.

On the way to the orphanage, Hyunwoo looked carefully at the warehouse. It was an old one. It was about 900 square meters, and the warehouse’s total floor area was 300 square meters, with 6 meters of height. It looked like it had been used as a warehouse for agricultural products like rice in the past. When he came close to it, it was shabby but very sturdy. What he liked most was the size. It was large enough to store the castors and sell them. In addition, there was a small security room right beside the warehouse. Though it was not proper for a newlyweds’ house, when renovated, it would be much better than any one room house.

He immediately headed for the House of Happiness. When he asked around, the director knew something about it.

“I guess it was last year. It was put on sale at a cheap price, so we were thinking of buying it, but as it was far from us, and we had no particular use for it, we stopped caring about it any more.”

Hyunwoo opened his eyes wide. All the conditions were perfect.

“I would like to buy it if the price is alright. Can you give me the seller’s contact number?”

“I’m not sure if the seller is still interested in selling it. Let me call him as I have his number.”

The director called the seller on the spot. The owner of the warehouse replied in the positive.

The price was the same, 150 million won, which he asked for last year.

“As for the sales price, I don’t even take into account the building itself. You’ll see it’s cheap if you check it out,” said the owner.

Hyunwoo asked around several real estate agents to check it out.

“Oh, that building. 150 million won for such a building is a bargain,” said one agent.

Hyunwoo thought it was a good deal. As soon as he bought the warehouse, he could hire the staff immediately, and the hiring was a done deal.

Hyunwoo met the warehouse owner to finish the deal and then asked one of his acquaintances about renovating it for the purpose of storing and managing the castors. He was the president of an interior company, who Hyunwoo knew very well and trusted.

“So, you mean the warehouse should be renovated for storing the industrial castors by type, right?”

“Yes. As we receive orders, we have to take them out immediately for shipping, so it’s necessary for us to easily find and ship the castors,” said Hyunwoo.

“It’s not that difficult. Let me draw a rough sketch and show it to you. If you like it, I can finish the renovation work within a week.”

“I wonder if you can change the security office out there into a private house?”

“Well, it’s equipped with tap water and a restroom. Though it’s rather narrow, I think I can renovate it, too without doing any big work.”

“I think it was good to contact you on this, brother. Thanks for your nice job in advance!”

“Never mind, let me take care of it, so don’t worry.”

After Hyunwoo entrusted him with the renovation, he contacted Jaegyong and Sungrak, “Won’t you do business with me?”