Silicon Valley

Chapter 4 Dreams Take Off

In the evening, Roger Nicholas held a banquet for Henry, inviting friends and surrounding neighbors to attend.

"Ladies and gentlemen, good evening, everyone, welcome to this banquet! Now, I will solemnly introduce a person to you!" Roger Nicholas paused, pointing to Henry standing beside him, "he It's Henry Williams, my grandson of Roger Nicholas!!!"

clap clap clap! ! !

Everyone clapped their hands happily to celebrate the reunion of Roger Nicholas grandson and grandson.

Roger Nicholas raised his hand to signal everyone to stop, and Will attorney handed him a document. Roger Nicholas held up the document and announced loudly: "Today I have made a will, and when I die, all the property will be inherited by Henry Williams!!!"

"Grandpa!" Hearing this, Henry couldn't help being stunned, his mouth slightly opened, and he was speechless for a while.

Roger Nicholas touched Henry's head and said with a smile, "Good boy, it was your grandfather's fault in the past. If it wasn't for your grandfather driving your mother away, you wouldn't have suffered so many disasters!" The old man said this, no Jue sighed and said, "Now my grandfather wants to compensate you well..."

"It's not my grandfather's fault, it's God's test for us. After the storm, it's a rainbow!"

Roger Nicholas laughed: "Haha, yes, this is God's test for us!"

When the guests around him saw that Henry could talk like this, they couldn't help but nod their heads, praising him for his extraordinary intelligence!

Roger Nicholas then announced the banquet began.

In addition to introducing Henry to others, Roger Nicholas held this banquet for another purpose. He knew his grandson had written a novel, but he suffered frequent setbacks when it came to publishing. As a well-known bookstore owner in California, it is natural to know many publishers. Therefore, he deliberately invited some high-level leaders of the American publishing industry to participate tonight, and planned to lobby for his grandson Henry at the banquet.

Henry got to know a lot of people at the banquet. What surprised him most was that the neighbors who lived next door were actually Stanford teacher couple Leonard Posack and Sandra Lerner. These two people have made a big break. As a senior network engineer, it is impossible for the founder of Cisco not to know (although only by his name and not by his name). Henry was in awe and chatted with the two.

At this time, Roger Nicholas was holding a copy of the manuscript for ten publishers to review.

"Roger, we are also old friends. This book is so immature that our publishing house cannot publish it."

"Yes, Roger, this book is really not good."

"The content of the novel is too simple and has no artistic sense."

"..."

Roger Nicholas looked slightly ugly: "Everyone, you must know that the author who wrote this book is only ten years old now! I think, if published, this is a very good gimmick, isn't it?!!"

The crowd still hesitated, but they did not deny it.

After the banquet, the Bosacs said goodbye to Roger Nicholas and praised Henry: "Mr. Nicholas, your grandson has a talent for learning computers. He is the smartest child I have ever seen!"

"Thank you for your praise!" Seeing them praising his grandson, Roger Nicholas was overjoyed and replied with a smile on his face.

Henry said, "Grandpa, I want to learn computer from Uncle Bosac as a teacher. Do you think so?"

Roger Nicholas laughed: "Of course I'm fine, I just don't know if Mr. Posac agrees?"

Leonard Posack said happily: "Of course there is no problem, I am very happy to accept a genius as a student!!!"

Henry was suddenly overjoyed, thinking about when Cisco was founded? Well, it seems to be at the end of this year...

In the evening, Roger Nicholas told Henry that he had shown the manuscript to ten publishers, and that there was a good chance that some would be willing to publish.

Henry hugged the old man and thanked him, "Thank you, Grandpa!"

The old man smiled with a loving look on his face.

The next day, Henry went to Posac's house with some greetings. For Henry's arrival, the Posac family was very welcome.

The Bosacs taught at Stanford and naturally didn't have much time to teach Henry. So Bosac gave Henry some rough computer knowledge, and then gave him a few books to teach himself. A few days later, Bosak was shocked. He asked Henry to take the test, but he was completely answered correctly by Henry. It involves some profound content, and Henry can answer it well. Posack had to feel that Henry was a genius. Therefore, Bosak taught more attentively. Henry even slept at Bosac's house at night.

And during this period, good things happened again and again.

Finally a publisher willing to publish Henry's novels. The publishing house is called West German Press. Although it is not very large, it only has influence in a few western states, but for Henry, it is the first step to success. Afterwards, Henry negotiated with the publisher. Since Henry insisted that he could only authorize West German Press's paper publishing rights in the United States, and it was only the first part of the Harry Potter series, he only received 6% of the royalties. .

A week or two later, in about mid-October, West German Press released 10,000 copies of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, priced at $10 a copy. At first, the market reaction was flat. However, a month later, the book "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" suddenly became popular. The main reason for this is that many young children love this book very much.

Due to the fire, the publishing house urgently printed 20,000 copies of "Harry Potter", but it did not want to be sold out immediately, so the West German Press had to continue printing!

"Los Angeles Times", "New York Times", "Washington Post" and other major newspapers have reported on this, ten-year-old best-selling author Henry Williamston rose to fame! Many reporters followed up and interviewed, trying to dig first-hand information.

People are afraid of being famous, pigs are afraid of being strong, or it is time to become famous as soon as possible. Henry has deep feelings for both. It is difficult to have both fame and not wanting to be harassed by the outside world. But being famous is a real benefit, at least novels sell better. The West German Press quickly adjusted Henry's royalties from 6% to 10%.

West German Publishing House considered the continued cooperation with Henry in the future, otherwise the second part of "Harry Potter" is likely to end up in his house. The "Harry Potter" series obviously has the potential to be a big hit, which means that the West German publishing house can make more money, and at the same time, the West German publishing house can rely on the influence of "Harry Potter". The power to grow and develop, to enhance its distribution capabilities, its benefits are much more than the money earned by a book! ! !

At the end of November, the Posacs resigned. When Henry heard the news, his heart jumped, because he knew that a future Internet giant was about to be born.

three days later.

"Henry, your Aunt Lerner and I are going to start a high-tech company," Posac said that evening.

Many years have passed, Henry still clearly remembers that night when the sky was full of stars and the moonlight was like water, but he didn't notice a ripple in his heart. When he left that night, he said something to Posac, and that sentence is unforgettable to this day: "Mr. Posac, let's create a big situation together!!!"

Bosak nodded and agreed to Henry's request.

So, Henry returned home full of joy.

"Grandpa, Mr. Bosac wants to start a company, and I want to be a partner with him." After Henry met Roger Nicholas, he immediately told him his major decision.

Roger Nicholas first stood on the side of the businessman and thought for a while, considering the pros and cons, and then he asked some more about starting a company. Henry may know more about what kind of company Cisco is than the Bosacs, so he gave his grandfather a detailed analysis of the company's development prospects, talking about routers and the Internet. But in the end, Henry's grandfather seemed to be more and more confused, but his face was full of smiles. Because he found that his grandson was very interested in the establishment of the company. Obviously, he had considered a lot of things, so he should support this enthusiasm, even if he lost money in the end!

"Henry, grandpa supports you!" Roger Nicholas smiled kindly.

yeah! ! !

Henry was overjoyed. With his grandfather's support, funding would not be a problem. Henry has no money now, and the manuscript fee is paid once a quarter. If Henry wants to get the money, he will have to wait until March next year.

"Grandpa, can you help me advance a million dollars first, and I'll pay you back when I get the manuscript fee!" Henry looked at Roger Nicholas expectantly.

"What's the matter? Grandpa's money is not your money!!!" Roger Nicholas tapped Henry on the head lightly and laughed.

Henry touched his head and smiled embarrassedly at his grandfather, but he still insisted on his decision: "Grandpa, this is not a matter of money or not, but a matter of principle. I want to rely on my own skills to start a business, and this is the success. I feel it! Grandpa doesn't want me to be a mediocre second-generation rich man who only knows how to eat old things, right?"

"Okay!!!" Roger Nicholas was very happy when he heard this.

Henry immediately wrote an IOU, and then handed it to my grandfather: "This is my IOU, I will pay you back when the manuscript fee is received next year!!!"

"Okay!" Roger Nicholas took Henry's IOU with a smile and saw that it read "On the evening of December 3, 1984, Henry Williams borrowed one million from his beloved grandfather, Mr. Roger Nicholas. Dollar."

Roger Nicholas collected the IOU at will, and he had no intention of asking Henry to repay the money. But this simple IOU was bid for 10 million US dollars in an auction a few years later, which shocked the world! ! ! After Roger Nicholas received the IOU, he wrote a check to Henry. Although Henry was only ten years old, he was extremely sensible. Roger gave him the cheque and felt relieved.

The next day, Henry went to Mr. Posac's house with a check.

"Mr. Bosac, what is the starting capital for your company?" Henry asked.

"Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars," said Posac. Americans like to spend in advance, so the average person does not have much savings. The Bosak family has three cars worth three or four million dollars, and their villa is worth more than one million dollars. Speaking of which, the Posacs are still a wealthy couple.

But $250,000 is a drop in the bucket for starting a high-tech company. Historically, Posac took out a mortgage on the villa. Later, it immediately accepted financing from Sequoia Capital, and the company developed.

"Mr. Bosac, I borrowed one million dollars from my grandfather for next year's manuscript fee!" Henry said, and took out the check.

Both Posac and the Lerners were stunned. They didn't expect me to give out so much money at once.

"Mr. Posac, how about we invest 1 million US dollars and we each own 50% of the shares?" Henry looked at Posac and Lerner, a little nervous in his heart, worried that he owned too much shares, and the two disagreed with this Allocation. Unexpectedly, Posac shook his head and said, "No, you should be the largest shareholder with so much money. We only need 40%, and let you account for 60% of the shares."

Henry was instantly stunned.

Be honest, be honest! No wonder the couple sold Cisco at a cabbage price in the future! Well, although I have taken advantage of it now, with me here, I won't let you repeat the same mistakes, and you can be a global billionaire in the future.

Henry agreed to this share distribution method.

In the next few days, Posac, Lerner and Henry went to register a company. Posac wanted to name the company "San Francisco", but the law did not allow the company to be registered in the name of the city, so he finally took it. The last five letters of SanFrancisco - cisco, which is Cisco!

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