Chapter 79: The Age of Gold Rush

Su Mu turned his head and saw James and Li Zhekai walking across the street toward him. Smiling, he explained, “School’s on holiday today. Next year I might try for Stanford, so I came to take a look. It’s even more beautiful than I imagined.”

“If I remember right, you just started high school, didn’t you? You go to the same school as my cousin Brown?” James and his cousin Brown both had the given name Daniel, which made things awkward, so they usually addressed each other by their surnames.

Speaking of Daniel James, who had recently been hired by Oracle, he’d been having a particularly unlucky streak. He hadn’t even gotten through his internship before being fired by what he called his “crazy, perverted boss.” The reason was simple—he’d stayed up late the night before, and the next day fell asleep at work, failing to deliver a report to his boss, Larry Ellison, on time. He was rudely awakened and told to pack up and leave.

Many bosses in Silicon Valley seemed to have started their businesses after dropping out of university, like Jobs, Gates, and Oracle’s founder, Larry Ellison. At this time, Oracle’s market value was close to that of Microsoft, making it one of Silicon Valley’s star companies, and it was preparing to list on NASDAQ.

Perhaps in such a burgeoning market, it was just too easy to succeed if you had creativity and brains, making these people lose interest in further study. Before this, American social classes had already solidified, and there were few opportunities to get rich—those with money only became richer. The IT industry was a brand-new field, not yet fully appreciated, though some had begun to pay attention to its development. In recent years, many billionaires had emerged, and there were countless millionaires—so many people were flocking to Silicon Valley, much like the gold rush in San Francisco years ago.

Losing the Oracle job didn’t bother James much; compared to George, who was interning at IBM, Oracle’s work was grueling, and Ellison was notorious for his temper throughout Silicon Valley.

Su Mu replied, “That’s right, but I don’t find the material difficult. I should finish everything soon, then I’ll start preparing for the ACT test, hopefully getting into Stanford by next year.”

Famous universities never lacked young, smart students, so there was no need to make a fuss.

James calmly said, “Good luck. Want to join me for dinner tonight? It’s my birthday—the place is Apple Tree Music Bar. If you’re interested, maybe you can sneak a drink or two, as long as you don’t cause trouble.”

George, who shared the same house, had already mentioned James’s birthday to Su Mu a few days earlier.

He’d even taken out thirty dollars, teaming up with George to buy James a cake. Usually stingy, it was true, but he thought this blond youth was decent enough and didn’t mind helping celebrate.

“Sure,” Su Mu agreed. “What time?”

“Around seven-thirty. You’ve been learning programming lately, right? We’re going to see my mentor now—want to meet him ahead of time?” James continued, “Professor Howard holds a high position in our department. If he thinks you have talent, it’ll be much easier to get admitted. Our major is famous, but we’re short on faculty, so getting in with average grades is tough.”

These days, Su Mu had often consulted them about programming, and with his plans for Stanford, it was easy enough for them to guess his intended major.

After reading through all those books, Su Mu had sold them, earning over six hundred dollars in total—twice as much as James had expected—and saved it all for utility bills.

When new students enrolled in September, one bought all those used books at eighty percent of the new price. Su Mu had gotten lucky.

Knowing they were helping him out, Su Mu didn’t refuse their kindness. He smiled, “Alright. You two are planning to start a business together, aren’t you?”

“How did you know?” Li Zhekai asked curiously.

“I overheard you talking yesterday about renting a warehouse nearby. Plus, this morning a truck came and took away your Ferrari.”

“…Yeah, I need money for investment.”

That was confirmation—they really were planning to go into business together.

James had the technical skills, and after selling his car, Li Zhekai had the seed money.

Su Mu thought it was a good idea. Better to invest and take a chance than own a luxury car with no money. Working for others rarely led to much, with limited room for advancement.

There was certainly risk. Companies were springing up in Silicon Valley, but just as many were collapsing. Some people made money, but more lost everything.

Su Mu didn’t know what they were planning and hadn’t considered getting involved.

He had too few chips in hand, enough for only one gamble—he couldn’t afford to waste them.

He’d just finished organizing his thoughts. He’d told Bill Gates earlier that he planned to develop a product—it wasn’t just idle talk. From the beginning, Su Mu intended to go it alone. Seeing Li Zhekai and James weren’t inviting him in, he didn’t pursue the matter or ask to invest.

Boss Han, who knew Su Mu’s father, Su Dingcai, had a good reputation in Chinatown. Su Mu himself thought he was reliable, which was why he dared invest over ten thousand dollars to open a supermarket together.

But with Li Zhekai and James, he wasn’t familiar enough. Picking business partners was crucial, and considering Li Zhekai’s financial backing, Su Mu thought he’d likely end up just an accessory.

...

With nothing better to do, he accompanied them to meet Professor Howard, a middle-aged man, and then sat in the office, listening as James explained their entrepreneurial vision—a plan to develop office software, with an estimated investment of around one hundred thousand dollars.

Many people were working on office software; at this time, computers were mainly used for office tasks. Last year, Microsoft had just released Word, and now Silicon Valley’s largest independent software company, Lotus, was developing many office programs as well. Su Mu didn’t know much, but he had a vague sense that compared to those giants, James and Li Zhekai didn’t have enough competitive strength.

Su Mu stayed quiet throughout, listening attentively.

He could understand most of the technical terms and suddenly realized it might be time to buy a computer. Schoolwork wasn’t busy lately, so he had time to start learning programming. There were programming courses outside school, and once he hired two or three assistants, he could begin his own venture in Silicon Valley.

Money was the main constraint; because he had so little, every penny had to be spent wisely.

Programming skills could be learned or employees hired, and there were plenty of business ideas. He’d figured out a lot from radio shows, and while many technologies couldn’t be realized yet, some seemed feasible. He couldn’t say for sure he’d succeed, but at least the odds were favorable.

During his time in Silicon Valley, he hadn’t only been reading and sleeping. On weekends, he’d visited many companies, finding ways to learn about their products.

He’d come to Silicon Valley to make money. As for dreams, passions, or changing society—those were things to consider only after living a good life…