Chapter 756 I Can Talk to Them About Movies
"Eric, Chris, let me introduce to you, this is John Neff, to be honest, I don't agree with many of his economic views, but we can't deny that John is in charge of the Windsor Fund for these 20 years. Over the years, the company has outperformed the Dow by more than 3% almost every year."
In Queens, New York, it was the day after Halloween, and Eric arrived on time for what Buffett said was a party at a wealthy mansion in Queens.
Hearing the name of the "Windsor Fund" mentioned by Buffett, Eric raised his eyebrows slightly, but on the surface he still reached out his hand very enthusiastically to shake hands with the old man who looked somewhat similar to Buffett, and even wore black-rimmed tortoiseshell glasses.
"Hello, Eric, Chris," John Neff shook hands with Eric and Chris with a smile on his face, and looked at Buffett with dissatisfaction: "Hey, Warren, you're in front of me again. I've been scolding me in front of young people, and maybe we need to find a special time to discuss your views on efficient market theory."
"Of course no problem, I have time at any time," Buffett laughed and added: "However, now I'm going to take two young people to meet other old guys."
The answerer, Buffett raised the glass in his hand to John Neff, and took Eric and Chris to another man in his sixties: "Another John," Buffett raised it to the old man in front of him. Raising a glass, he said to Eric and Chris, "John Bogle, John, this is Eric, and Chris, let's meet you."
Chris, who was on the other side of Buffett, reached out to John Bogle eagerly this time: "Mr Bogle, I'm Chris Hansen, nice to meet you, oh, I studied in college. Many of your economics papers."
"Hello, Chris, I know you, Firefly Investments' portfolio has been excellent over the past few years, maybe we can take a moment to chat."
"Of course, if I can have this honor," Chris nodded hurriedly, giving Eric a bit of the illusion of fans seeing big stars.
However, this is not surprising. In this hall, Buffett will not talk about it, and many other people are well-known figures in the investment world.
Just like John Bogle, Eric has done some homework in advance, but even if he does nothing, the Vanguard Group founded by John Bogle is very familiar. In memory, this famous investment fund company is the most famous investment fund company. At its peak, he controlled a wealth of nearly 900 billion US dollars. Even at this time, the assets of the Vanguard Fund reached 200 billion. Although Eric's personal wealth has reached a point that many people can't match, the wealth controlled by these old men But far more than him.
From yesterday's participation in Morgan Stanley Chairman Seymour Gilbert to a series of investment tycoons introduced by Buffett, Eric gradually realized a truth. The most important thing that represents a person's power is not how much he owns. resources, but how much he can control.
Although Eric had faintly had a similar idea before this, the series of capital predators he saw in the past two days made this idea in his mind clearer, just like John Bogle in front of him. , although his personal wealth is far from comparable to that of Eric,
However, the Vanguard Group he controls firmly controls assets of more than 200 billion US dollars. These assets represent a large number of seats on the board of directors of Fortune 500 companies in the United States and the world. It is these large fund companies that can influence an industry and even a country's economy. Towards true strength.
As Buffett walked around the hall and came to a bar, Buffett exchanged a glass of wine, chatted with Eric and Chris a few more times, and then said: "Okay, Eric, you can find Interested guys chat, of course, you can also get to know these young people of your age."
Chris was already eager to try, and after hearing this, he raised his glass to Eric and Buffett, and walked to other places. As a top student majoring in finance, it is obvious that there are many master-level investors in the market that he admires, and these people are definitely more real and practical than many so-called economists who only talk about it.
In the hall, in addition to some old men that Buffett just specially introduced to Eric and Chris, there are also many young people of similar age to them. Judging from the situation, they should also be the younger generations brought by these people. The silver-haired old man walked towards Buffett with a young man in his thirties: "Hey, Warren, good evening, oh, and Eric, introduce, this is my brother's child, Nate, he Now working as an investment manager at Kahn Brothers."
Eric knew that the other party's target was Buffett, smiled at several people, and took the initiative to walk away.
After a while in the crowd, Virginia, who had been chatting happily among a group of female relatives, noticed Eric's figure and walked towards him.
"What are you talking about?" Eric raised his glass to the female guest who had just been chatting with Virginia, and asked the woman holding his arm with a smile.
"Movies, fashion, etc., in short, it's not something that you big men are interested in."
Eric smiled and said, "Oh, I'm actually very interested in these things."
The two were talking when a male voice came from behind: "Hey, Eric."
Turning his head, Eric saw Bill Gates and his wife, and stretched out his hand with a smile: "Hey, good evening, Bill, Melinda, this is Virginia."
"Hello, Ms. Madsen, when Melinda and I were dating, we happened to go to see your movie, Cry on a Island, right?"
"Yeah, I didn't expect that, that was a few years ago," Virginia shook hands with Bill Gates and Melinda Gates graciously.
Since the success of win95, Microsoft has rapidly accelerated its layout in the Internet industry in the past six months. Not only has it launched a portal website business, but it has even begun to play the role of an Internet service provider. At this point, it can be said that Yahoo and America Online have already started a close-quarters battle.
Eric has always kept a close eye on Microsoft's related businesses. Therefore, judging from Microsoft's modest expansion results in the past few months, Eric is not too wary of Microsoft's threat, although he remains vigilant. Feel.
Losing the browser, an important Internet interface resource, compared to his previous life, Eric is even less optimistic about Microsoft's Internet business at this time. Moreover, after the success of Windows 95, Microsoft's monopoly in the operating system market has become a foregone conclusion. The disease also began to appear gradually. After the company system gradually became bloated and lost the flexibility to forge ahead, even with strong resources, it is definitely not that easy to enter a fast-growing industry.
Although a life-and-death competition has already started in private, neither side will show it. After the exchange, Eric remembered what happened not long ago and asked, "Bill, I heard that you went to China not long ago, how do you feel?"
Bill Gates shrugged and said: "The market environment there, in short, is pretty bad, but it's always a very large market, maybe I'll have to visit a few times in the next few years."
Eric smiled. The purpose of Bill's trip to China is the same as that of many technology tycoons in his memory, which is to develop the seemingly bright Chinese market.
However, Eric believes that Bill Gates has made a few more trips to know that the market environment there is not very bad, but very bad. The standard price of windows95 is converted into RMB close to 2000 yuan. Even if the price of the Chinese version is greatly reduced, it is definitely not something that users can afford at this time. The only thing that Microsoft can develop is the enterprise market, that is, those who can not spend their own money. Where to buy genuine systems.
In fact, Eric really wants to go back and see, but his identity is not as simple as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are just pure entrepreneurs, but Eric is not as simple as that. Holding the largest media group in North America and such a huge media channel resource, if you are too close to there, it is almost inevitable that you will be attacked by competitors. If you turn your face and don't recognize the face of a politician who speaks ill of others, you simply don't ask for trouble.
Chatted a few words with Bill Gates. Although the two sides still maintained a polite attitude, they would not have much common language after all. The two sides separated. Eric raised his arm and let Virginia hold him. , said: "Let's go, since Warren brought me here on purpose, he can't live up to his good intentions. It will definitely be beneficial to have more contact with these old men."
Virginia glanced at Chris, who was not far away with Emily chatting with a middle-aged man wearing glasses, and smiled: "Okay, but in this case, you are definitely not as easy as Chris. Woolen cloth."
"It's okay," Eric smiled and said, "I can talk to them about movies."
"Ha ha."
Chatting in a low voice, Eric walked towards the crowd with Virginia.
In fact, on such occasions, everyone does not talk too much about serious matters, and the most important thing is to manage contacts.
In the past few years, Eric was always in a state of non-stop busyness, and he himself didn't like this kind of social situation, so he didn't feel it.
But in recent days, from Terry Semel's video tape to his daughter, to Morgan Stanley's chairman inviting him to yesterday's party to today's Buffett bringing him to this party, Eric has gradually felt that there is nowhere around him The absent 'big net' began to win over him, different ethnic groups, different forces, different industries... The common point of these 'big nets' is that they all have very strong influence, and none of them want to pull him into the own network in order to expand its own strength.
After this party, the year-end schedule is gradually approaching, and Eric's more than two months of semi-vacation life is coming to an end.
In the following week, most of the media in the United States began to pay close attention to what was undoubtedly the second annual Victoria's Secret show.
This year's Victoria's Secret show is scheduled for Thursday, November 9.
The official TV broadcast is the same as last year, scheduled for a month later. Although this year's Victoria's Secret show will be scheduled to start at 10 o'clock because of the age limit of the audience, but for the audience who has been looking forward to a whole year, waiting for two hours is not a big problem. Most of the audience of Mi Daxiu are young people who are accustomed to nightlife. Although the broadcast time was delayed by an hour compared to last year, the viewership statistics agency still gave a conservative viewership estimate of 25 million.
For ordinary viewers, of course, they can only silently find some pictures or video reports about the Victoria's Secret show in newspapers or TV stations after November 9 to satisfy their curiosity in advance and officially see the grand scene of the Victoria's Secret show. It has to wait until a month later, but for the hundreds of guests invited by the Victoria's Secret show, they can feast their eyes in advance.
Last year, after Eric's half-year devil-like adjustment, the Victoria's Secret Angels are already familiar with this big show. In this year's Victoria's Secret show, the most stressful is Michael Bay, who is the director.
Since the news that Michael Bay will be the director of the second Victoria's Secret show was announced, the media has paid close attention to him for more than half a year. While Michael Bay's popularity has risen sharply, he has not been surprised to suffer. under very high pressure.
However, the Firefly Group is very happy to see this happen, because a week after the Victoria's Secret show, Michael Bay's film director "Jedi Men" is about to be released, with the reputation of this film in memory , At this time, it has a popular schedule such as Thanksgiving, and has gained a lot of attention in advance. Eric believes that the box office of this movie far exceeds the data of the original time and space is almost certain.
Although the male protagonist is no longer Will Smith, in the original time and space, it was this film that made Will Smith popular, not Will Smith. The impact will not be too big, and this has another big advantage, that is, once "Jedi Men" achieves its scheduled success, Firefly can immediately start the production of the sequel. After all, after replacing Will Smith, this film The sequel will also not be as ill-fated as the previous life.
Manhattan, inside the Lexington Avenue Arsenal.
On November 9th, as the evening gradually approached, more and more people began to gather on the surrounding streets. One after another, luxury cars stopped at the end of the red carpet. The guests who walked out of the car caused bursts of screams and cheers from time to time. Voice.
Compared with last year, Eric left all the spotlight to the Victoria's Secret Angels, this year's project team slightly changed the strategy and invited more well-known celebrities and superstars as guests, with the influence of the Victoria's Secret show, these People are happy to attend.
Eric did not object to this change of strategy, but he did not join in the fun, but went directly to the backstage of the Victoria's Secret show in a low-key manner.