Chapter 41: CEO (3)
He was analyzing. "Opening a single shop creates a bottleneck. Our current model is flexible. We only buy what we know we can sell. A shop would be a huge liability."
Adam was very impressed with this child’s thinking. It was sharp and logical.
Smith was so caught up in his frustration that he hit the ground with his fist. "I have explained to my father many times," he said his voice tight with emotion.
"I’ve made spreadsheets. I’ve shown him the numbers. But he is not ready to understand. He just doesn’t get it. And he tells me that I should study. He says I should not pay attention to this ’little hobby’. But this education is useless to me. It’s just memorizing facts. With this I can’t do what I am thinking."
Adam was very surprised. The boy’s intensity was captivating. "What are you thinking?" he asked his voice now soft with genuine curiosity.
Smith’s eyes lit up. He looked at Adam as if seeing him for the first time. He had found someone who was actually listening. "I am thinking that in just five years from now I will make my business so big that I will not need to come to this school," Smith said his voice ringing with a powerful conviction.
"In fact other big schools will call me. They will ask me to give lectures on entrepreneurship."
Adam was very impressed with this child’s perception and his far-sighted thinking. He had a clear vision. A powerful dream. But Adam still felt that he was very inexperienced. He was naive. And he was thinking of doing things very quickly.
Usually in any business one thinks for 10 or 15 years to achieve such a scale. But Smith wanted to make his business a national powerhouse in just 5 years. Adam knew that this kind of haste would definitely cause a very big loss for him. He would make mistakes. He would face setbacks.
But then an idea came to Adam. Smith did not have money. But he had ambition. He had intelligence. He had the drive. He was the perfect candidate for what Adam needed.
Adam smiled a slow calculating smile. "So what do you think?" he asked. "Will your father agree to this idea? Even if you show him a perfect plan how will you do it?"
Hearing this Smith looked at the other children playing on the court again. He gritted his teeth. The frustration was visible on his face. "This is the problem," he said his voice low and bitter.
"My father has completely stopped listening to me. He has found a stable business. A small comfortable income. But this is only for a short term. In the long term this can be very harmful. It’s a trap. Now he wants me to live a normal life like my sister. He wants me to get good grades go to college get a safe job. But I am not like that. I am not built for that life. I am made for business. And I keep thinking about business day and night. Then how can I study with all these normal children? How can I pretend to care about these classes? Every moment I spend here I feel like I am wasting time."