I Will Raise This Family to Greatness - Chapter 168

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 168
Bill and Charlie.
Both wore expressions that revealed nothing, and they deliberately avoided meeting each other’s gaze.
I spoke slowly.
“Of course, I’m asking you both for a favor, but it won’t be free. You both want to invest in FaceNote, don’t you?”
Bill and Charlie said nothing.
Both seemed determined not to be the first to expose their true intentions, keeping their lips firmly sealed.
[Then I’ll have to dangle the carrot first.]
I looked between them and continued.
“Once we get through this crisis, I plan to open FaceNote to the public. I’ve been running it in a closed manner until now. I don’t want FaceNote to remain an SNS used only by Americans. To become a social network for people worldwide, I intend to aggressively pursue investment and expand the company from this point forward.”
Bill Gates leaned forward.
“Sung-guk, are you saying you’ll give Charlie and me first priority on investments?”
“Of course. I won’t allow FaceNote to become a company controlled by a single investor. You and Charlie will become the most influential investors alongside Peter, but I want to make clear upfront that you won’t interfere with Mark’s and my operational control.”
Charlie Jobs smiled faintly.
“I like it. I appreciate your stubbornness. Being kicked out of one’s own company once should be enough, wouldn’t you say?”
Charlie Jobs’ humorous reference to his painful past expulsion from Apple lightened the atmosphere in the office considerably.
Bill Gates nodded as well.
“Sung-guk, if we do invest, no matter how much you and Mark own FaceNote, you can’t ignore our advice.”
“Let’s resolve this situation first, then discuss that slowly. After all, nothing can be guaranteed before a contract is drawn up, right?”
“You really don’t leave any openings.”
Bill Gates stood up from his seat.
Charlie Jobs followed suit and stood.
“Bill, our tasks are set then?”
“I’ll contact Rupert Murdoch.”
“Bill, Murdoch must be dealing with his divorce troubles these days. Will that be alright?”
“Murdoch’s been through a divorce or two before, so he probably knows how to overcome the pain better than anyone.”
At that moment, I looked at Bill.
“Bill, you were the one who informed me about this first thing last night. How did you obtain this information?”
“A journalist friend of mine—he knows I’m interested in FaceNote. A colleague consulted with him about this matter, and apparently he suspects the information Jerry leaked. He thought it would be good for me to know.”
“Jerry Chang seems to have made many enemies.”
Bill shrugged at my comment.
“Look at the emails he sent to employees at dawn. With that personality, wouldn’t he have more enemies than friends?”
“Hmm, Bill. You’re not implying I should listen to that, are you?”
Charlie Jobs, feeling oddly guilty, interjected.
Bill Gates laughed cheerfully and nodded.
“Charlie, you’re different from Jerry. You’re a lunatic even your enemies acknowledge.”
Everyone except Charlie suppressed their laughter at that remark.
Charlie prepared to leave with an offended expression.
“That’s why I hated windows so much. Sung-guk, I’ll handle things on my end, so don’t worry.”
“I’ll keep monitoring the situation with the Yahoo employees at FaceNote and contact you with updates as they come.”
Charlie waved his hand and left without even looking back.
Bill looked at me with an amused expression.
“Sung-guk, this kind of slander is just the beginning. Welcome to the truly ruthless world of business.”
“Thank you.”
I bowed quickly.
[They don’t know, but when I was Vice Chairman of the Samjeon Group before, incidents like this were commonplace. The ruthless world of business… I’m already looking forward to it.]
Mark draped his arm across my shoulder.
“Sung-guk, could this crisis become an opportunity?”
“Mark, if we can’t overcome this crisis, FaceNote will disappear into history too.”
That was the truth.
“Alright, Mark and Lim Mi-mi. Everyone needs to re-examine all the posts that Yahoo employees have uploaded to FaceNote. If you find anything that could become an issue, don’t hesitate to report it to me!”
“Yes, sir!”
“Anyway, they’re not giving us a moment to breathe.”
Mark grumbled but was the first to sit down at his desk.
* * *
David Filo burst through the door to Jerry Chang’s office.
Jerry looked up at David with an irritated expression.
“David, you can’t knock?”
“Jerry, what exactly have you done?”
“What are you talking about?”
“There’s an uproar on the internal message board. ‘Immediate termination for using FaceNote’! Did you really send an email like that?”
“Don’t you remember the night you called me?”
“Surely not…”
David was left speechless.
He knew Jerry Chang’s temperament well enough from their university days.
He was cold-blooded, but when he lost his temper, no one could stop him.
“Jerry, you sent an email to the employees saying they’d be fired if they used FaceNote just because your acquisition offer was rejected?”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Jerry!”
David was flabbergasted.
“Don’t be angry, David. I tipped off a journalist I know to investigate FaceNote’s personal information leak. Once the story breaks, a startup like FaceNote won’t be able to survive. Then we can acquire it at a cheap price.”
“Sigh…”
David exhaled deeply.
“David, don’t sigh. Everything will work out fine.”
“Jerry, you should apologize to the employees for what you’ve done. The board might even question your qualifications as an owner.”
“Don’t worry. If the article comes out this week, everything will be resolved perfectly.”
Jerry answered with confidence.
David said nothing more and left the office.
Jerry began examining the employees’ FaceNote posts again.
All the Yahoo employees’ FaceNote posts began to bear the same hashtag.
#I’m a Yahoo employee but I’m using FaceNote
* * *
I rolled my neck and rose from my seat.
It was time for caffeine.
“Who wants coffee?”
“Me!”
“Me too!”
Mark suddenly looked at me.
“Sung-guk, you’ve been drinking coffee secretly all along, haven’t you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Then how can someone drinking coffee for the first time keep having it one after another like this?”
“Coffee must just suit my constitution.”
I shrugged my shoulders.
Mark stretched and stood up to get coffee as well.
“Jerry doesn’t seem to be a good owner. In the email Jerry sent, all the employees are posting with ‘#I’m a Yahoo employee but I’m using FaceNote’ as if they’re proving something.”
“An owner who sends emails arbitrarily in the middle of the night can’t be good.”
“Charlie Jobs does that too though… What’s the difference between Jerry and Charlie?”
“Charlie does it because he’s obsessed with work. Jerry does it to confirm his authority, so there’s a clear difference.”
“You’re right. If we get through this crisis well, let’s never become that kind of CEO.”
“There’s a Chinese saying: a negative example becomes a teacher.”
“A negative example becomes a teacher?”
“It means learning lessons from seeing someone’s negative side. If I win this battle, I’m planning to send this phrase to Jerry, the Taiwanese-American.”
“Sung-guk, you know you’re pretty ruthless, right?”
“I’m probably the cruelest twelve-year-old out there.”
Just then, Lim Mi-mi raised her hand sharply.
“CEO! Mark! Look at this!”
Lim Mi-mi showed us her laptop screen.
“A Yahoo employee posted with the hashtag ‘#I’m a Yahoo employee but I’m using FaceNote’ and Jerry is commenting on it right now!”
“What is he commenting?”
“It’s the first thing I said to you, CEO!”
“You’re Fired!”
Mark and I shouted simultaneously.
In that moment, I slapped my knee.
“Jerry is using FaceNote right now!”
“Oh… that’s right! He told Yahoo employees that using FaceNote means immediate termination, and now he’s using FaceNote himself.”
A smile spread across my face.
I quickly sent this fact to Bill and Charlie.
– Jerry came directly to FaceNote and is leaving ‘You’re Fired!’ comments on FaceNote posts by Yahoo employees who are using FaceNote.
“CEO, just as you pointed out, the employees are in an uproar right now. He told us not to do it, but now he’s coming in and commenting himself! They’re saying Jerry must want to monopolize FaceNote.”
And soon, FaceNote was flooded with the hashtag ‘#I am Jerry Chang’ trending everywhere.
* * *
The sun was setting beyond the office windows.
At that moment, a message arrived from Bill.
– Sung-guk, check the CBN 7 o’clock news.
I quickly glanced at the time. It was five minutes before seven.
“Mark, Lim Mi-mi. Bill says we should check the 7 o’clock news.”
We gathered in front of the TV positioned in the corner of the office.
Mark let out a long, drawn-out yawn.
“Sung-guk, we can eat dinner tonight, right?”
“Let’s see what this news says first. If it’s not a fatal blow to Jerry, we need to prepare for us to take one.”
“Boss, we didn’t leak any personal information or anything like that.”
“Truth doesn’t matter—you know that well, Lim Mi-mi. In this free democratic United States, people will do anything to defeat their rivals.”
“North Korea is the same way.”
Soon the news began.
We all stared at the screen with tired faces.
The news anchor first covered a story about Jerry Chang of Yahoo.
– What search engine do you use? Google? Yahoo? Nothing else really comes to mind. Today we’re bringing you news about Jerry Chang, the founder and CEO of Yahoo. In the early morning of the 29th, Jerry Chang sent an email to Yahoo’s employees.
Immediately, a document appeared on screen.
On the screen, “FaceNote” was clearly visible.
Mark grinned and tapped my shoulder.
“Sung-guk, FaceNote is being advertised?”
“Just watch, Mark.”
I turned my attention back to the TV.
No matter how much Bill Gates and Charlie Jobs helped us, there was no way to predict how the media would spin this.
– FaceNote, as you know, is now a fairly famous SNS, right? This SNS, created by Harvard classmates Jeon Sung-guk and Mark Zuckerberg, has become extremely popular among American college students lately. It even gained fame when Hollywood actress Natalie Portman started using it. Recently, Yahoo offered a massive sum to acquire FaceNote, but the two young entrepreneurs, Jeon Sung-guk and Mark Zuckerberg, flatly rejected Jerry’s proposal. And that very morning, Jerry sent a company-wide email to all Yahoo employees stating that using FaceNote would result in immediate termination. But this single email evolved into a viral authentication challenge on FaceNote.
The screen showed hashtags posted by Yahoo employees on FaceNote.
#IamYahooEmployeeButIuseFaceNote
The anchor continued.
– The hashtag “#IamYahooEmployeeButIuseFaceNote” spread like wildfire. Ironically, Jerry Chang, who had forbidden employees from using FaceNote, began commenting directly on the posts himself, writing “You’re Fired!” Yahoo employees who received these comments simultaneously started using the hashtag “IamJerryChang,” responding to his comments with “You’re Fired!” as well.
The anchor smiled slightly and tilted his head in bewilderment.
– You clearly told people not to use FaceNote, yet here you are using FaceNote to fire them, Jerry. Jerry, aren’t you getting fired from Yahoo too?
I smiled with satisfaction.
Mark and Lim Mi-mi even high-fived each other.
“Sung-guk, it looks like we’ve succeeded, doesn’t it?”
At that moment, notifications for new posts on FaceNote started appearing on laptops all around us.
What’s this?
I quickly rushed over to check the new post.
It was a post from David Filo, Yahoo’s co-CEO.
– Jerry Chang, as you said, FaceNote users are termination targets. And I’m deeply regretful to inform you through FaceNote that you are the first person to be terminated under this policy.
Simultaneously, I, as the new sole CEO, am informing all Yahoo employees that Jerry Chang is the first and last person to be fired from Yahoo through using FaceNote.
Yahoo’s representative David Filo.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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