Chapter 3: Lucas' glorious past
874 Words
Lucas was always the best student at school, he spoke on stage at the graduation ceremony as the outstanding student.
He was ranked first in his studies, which led to an internship and job offer at Highstreet Capital. As a matter of fact, Alex Anderson, a professor at the school, tried to persuade Lucas to stay and continue his doctoral studies because he thought that Lucas's character was more suitable for academic research, but not for a VC organization like Highstreet Capital.
The so-called VC is a venture capital that focuses on primary market investment, identifying outstanding startups with potential, investing in equity at the initial stage, holding it for a long time, and exiting mainly through IPO. A successful VC program is highly profitable, and market myths include the Norwegian pension fund investing in Tesla for many years, and Japan's SoftBank investing in China's Alibaba, both of which made thousands or even tens of thousands of times their profits.
But while the returns are high, there are fewer opportunities, there is competition, and you have to dig for them.
Lucas is in a working group that has two main tasks: the first one is to look for Internet seed players in Silicon Valley, outstanding entrepreneurs in China, India, Germany, and all over the world are their hunting grounds. At the same time, there are many competitors. They are busy, dazzled, and like doped-up athletes. They are looking for the next f*******:, or Mordena during the COVID-19 epidemic (PS. Pfizer bought Mordena and developed the COVID-19 d**g, the king of drugs of the year with tens of billions in sales a year), or SpaceX. when they invest in a wind energy company, they pray every day for a war in the Middle East so that there is a shortage of oil and the price of wind energy will goes up. When they invest in an AIDS d**g company, they can't wait for the world to get AIDS, hoping that it will spread through the air like the new coronavirus. They are greedy, and they look at the results, not the process. As long as you can catch good investment targets, you are a champion, but no matter how hard you work, as long as you don't output results, you don't have the value of existence.
And the second main job, which is Lucas's main related one, is to keep expanding and maintaining the high net worth clients, fund houses, and investment organizations, so that they can put their money in Highstreet Capital. In terms of importance, probably this job has a greater impact on the company's performance, because only a constant flow of money can be invested in more projects, and most of the money that Highstreet earns is management fees from these clients.
'Lucas is good-looking, well-spoken, and would have been a good fit for the job', thought James, Lucas's boss. But then James realized what Lucas's problem: on one occasion, he took Lucas to visit a high-net-worth client who had inherited a billion dollars of his father's assets, and was planning to invest some of the money in Highstreet Capital's asset management program.
The client, was named Alex Wong. In a bright and spacious conference room, Lucas is standing in front of a huge projection screen, wearing a smart suit and holding a laser pointer in his hand as he introduces the company's products to Alex Wong, a client. His voice is clear and firm, and every piece of data and chart has been carefully prepared, making him look very professional.
Lucas: "According to our market research, our products have a significant competitive advantage in the same industry. You see, this is our sales growth curve, as well as the expected ROI."
Alex Wong, sitting at the other end of the table, nods slightly, but his face doesn't show much emotion; Lucas's presentation, though objective, seems to lack a certain spark that can touch people's hearts.
As Lucas's presentation ended, Alex Wong politely stood up and smiled, "Lucas, your data is comprehensive, but I think I need more time to think about it. Thank you for your presentation."
Lucas left the conference room with James, who looked a little serious. They find a quiet corner and James addresses Lucas seriously:
James: "Lucas, we need more than data, we need passion. You've got to make the client feel the value of this program so that they can't wait to invest. Remember, our program needs clients' money to continue to expand so we can get more commissions."
Lucas is silent for a moment, then speaks slowly, his eyes revealing an internal struggle.
Lucas said: "I understand what you're saying, James. but I feel that we should earn our clients' trust with honesty and professionalism, rather than baiting them with inflammatory language."
James sighed as he began to wonder if Lucas was really suitable for the position.
James: "Integrity is of course important, but passion and persuasion are equally crucial in this industry. If you can't adjust your sales strategy, we may need to consider whether to keep you in charge of this business."
Lucas replied with a soft "yes", but he was still torn up inside, as if he was lamenting his worthless values.
- Writer
