"Boss, thank you for your support of the shoe factory. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't dare to imagine what would have happened to the shoe factory..."
As soon as Steve entered the office, he expressed his utmost gratitude to Michael, looking very excited.
But it's understandable—
His small shoe factory had been operating for over a hundred years, with generations of his family working in the business. It had evolved from a small workshop to its current small factory, costing the Madden family a lot of effort.
However, due to Jordan and Donnie's reckless actions before, the factory and even the people involved almost disappeared.
Don't doubt that those shareholders who lost all their family fortunes would do anything if it came to that point.
Therefore, it can be said that King Group's angel investment saved the shoe factory and also saved Steve.
Michael still remembered the young man with curly hair and a slender build in front of him. When he first came to seek sponsorship, he brought a complete set of tools, ready to demonstrate his shoemaking skills on the spot.
Meeting such an honest and skilled person, Michael didn't think much at the time and invested a sum of money to help him through the difficult period.
Just looking at the performance report, the other party's small shoe factory is developing well now, so why is he here again this time?
Michael glanced at Jessie, who had led him in. The girl shrugged, indicating that she didn't know either.
"Alright, Steve, I've received your thanks. Is there anything else?" Michael stopped the young man, who seemed to have endless thanks.
"Uh, I mainly came here to express my gratitude. It was you who allowed the shoe factory to survive..." Steve continued to express his thanks.
It seemed that Michael had underestimated the importance of the ancestral shoe factory in Steve's heart.
"There's no need for thanks. Your diligent management of the shoe factory is my thanks," Michael interrupted his thanks again.
He wasn't really doing charity. The reason he was willing to spend millions to acquire the largest stake in the small shoe factory was because he saw its development prospects.
So, it was not wrong to say that Steve diligently managing the shoe factory was helping Michael.
"Oh, by the way, Boss, the shoe factory can be relisted soon. To avoid the negative impression from the first listing, I plan to re-register the brand name for the leather shoes. What do you think would be a good name?" Before leaving, Steve suddenly thought of something important.
The listing of the shoe factory could expand its influence and earn more money, which was Michael's plan when he invested.
Now, the shoe factory, which was about to be relisted, was no longer the small workshop it used to be. To differentiate it from before, it was indeed necessary to choose a new brand name.
"Change the brand name? Then let's call it Crocodile. It sounds good," Michael directly gave the leather shoe factory a unique name.
Yes, Steve's small shoe factory was previously called Cartelo. If no one intervened, it would still change its name to Crocodile in a few years.
Afterward, these leather shoes would also be sold globally.
Michael also took advantage of information asymmetry to invest ahead of time.
"Crocodile Footwear! That name is truly great," Steve smiled and agreed.
As for how it was great, he didn't actually know, but what the boss liked was definitely good.
...
"When Jordan comes to work at the company, have him first participate in the listing work for Crocodile Footwear. If he performs well, you can try letting him join the management team..."
After seeing Steve off, Michael explained the subsequent work arrangements to Chris.
Now that the King Group's framework has been established, with Chris and Jessie responsible for the overall direction, and a management team below them to share tasks.
Talented individuals like Jordan are certainly suitable to be leaders. However, this kind of thing cannot be rushed and still requires further evaluation.
On the other side, Jordan, who had driven home, happily embraced Naomi when he saw her.
"What happened? Is there good news?" Naomi felt that the man was very different from when he left.
"It is indeed good news. We don't have to run anymore. My troubles will be resolved very soon..." Jordan shared the good news with his girlfriend and also mentioned starting work at King Group.
Without the harassment from departments like the FBI, the young couple could finally live a good life.
"King Group? Then you must work hard in the future and not get involved in those messy things again." Having gone through many twists and turns, Naomi knew that a happy life was hard-won.
"Don't worry, even for our child who is about to be born, I will work diligently and down-to-earth in the future..." Speaking of the child, Jordan's face was also filled with happiness.
After experiencing great ups and downs, this man finally returned to his family.
...
More than a week later, the Wall Street fraud case, which had almost been forgotten, finally came to an end.
The perpetrator, Jordan Belfort, voluntarily admitted his guilt and actively cooperated with the relevant departments' subsequent work.
Following asset liquidation, tax repair, and fines, the remaining money was returned to Cartelo Footwear, now Crocodile Footwear, and Jordan was granted the right to extrajudicial bail.
After all the calculations, Jordan lost his large villa and a series of luxury items, ultimately only keeping over a hundred thousand.
Over a hundred thousand dollars was indeed nothing compared to half a billion in assets, but it was enough for Jordan to prepare for his fiancée's pregnancy.4
Yes, after the matter subsided and he regained his legal status, Jordan had successfully proposed to Naomi.
The two planned to get married this Christmas, which was just over a month away.
On the other side, Michael, who helped Jordan escape imprisonment, returned to campus after gaining talent for his company.
As the winter break approached, he urgently needed to make up credits.
Meanwhile, on the Columbia University campus, with the advent of college football and basketball leagues, Michael of the school's football team, and Scott the Werewolf and Mark from the school's basketball team, who were reliving their youth, quickly became sports stars renowned in the college leagues.5
It must be said that the admission of special recruits indeed helped to enhance the university's reputation.
For example, among the three mentioned above, except for Scott who entered Columbia University based on academic performance, the other two were admitted to Columbia University as sports specialists.
Now, these three Columbia University freshmen, due to their excellent performance in college sports leagues, have almost become Columbia University's external calling card.
Columbia University enjoyed the benefits of recruiting special talents, and other universities naturally would not fall behind.
This led to a situation where the more famous universities were, the more they liked to recruit excellent special talents. The quota reserved by these universities for sports and art specialists each year has reached about ten percent.
Therefore, even in famous universities, there are many people who do not like to study.
"You mean you want me to tutor you in cultural subjects, or join the college football team?" Michael, who had just finished one day of classes after his leave, looked speechlessly at Michael, who shared the same name as himself.
He was considered a representative figure of Columbia University's sports specialists.
"Yes, my cultural studies teacher told me that if my cultural grades don't pass, I won't be allowed to participate in the upcoming college football league..." Michael finished explaining his situation, then continued, "Help me, Michael, or help the team..."
Unlike the school's basketball team, which had Scott and Mark as its twin stars, Columbia University's football team only had Michael as its pillar this year.
If Michael cannot play in the quarterfinals, then Columbia University's football league this year is destined to stop at the quarterfinals.
But for Michael, playing football again was definitely impossible. It would be a bit presumptuous for him, whose physique had reached extraordinary level two, to compete against ordinary people.
Michael expressed: There's no showing off like that.
So, Michael looked at Collins next to him. As Michael's sister, she had passed Columbia University's cultural subjects
"I tutored Michael, but the results were not ideal..." As if thinking of something terrible, the girl quickly shook her head.
"Not ideal? How many points off was it?" Michael pressed.
"It's just... after my tutoring, Michael got 0 points on last week's cultural subject test." Collins averted her gaze, seemingly finding this embarrassing.
Zero points? Even if you chose the same option for all multiple-choice questions, you wouldn't get zero points.
This made Michael realize the difficulty of tutoring Michael in cultural subjects, no wonder Collins's expression was so resistant before.
From the results, Michael simply had no cells for studying cultural subjects in his brain.
"How about this, Michael, you go find the school board and have him approve a note for you that says you don't need to study cultural subjects. Or have the school board directly talk to your cultural subjects teacher." Michael had no intention of challenging the hellish difficulty of tutoring Michael, but instead found a relatively reliable solution for him.
After all, as long as the school board wasn't stupid, they would make the correct choice between the school football team's performance and Michael's cultural grades.
"Alright, Caroline. We'll see each other tomorrow too!"
After Michael left, Michael, with Paige and Collins, bid farewell to the Channing Family's eldest daughter.
That day, the Channing Family's eldest daughter's eyes were almost glued to Michael.
Moreover, she was also considered a "special recruit" student at Columbia University. Michael was afraid that if he didn't leave soon, she would also ask him to tutor her.
As his own strength and assets increased, Michael no longer valued the Channing Family as much.
At most, when the family collapses after the Ponzi scheme, Michael would pay a little more attention to Caroline when bottom-fishing.
"Michael, there's an inter-university academic exchange next week. This time, Columbia University is collaborating with the University of Texas. Do you want to go?" Once they were in the car without outsiders, Paige, in the passenger seat, asked.
Don't let the current booming college sports leagues fool you; academic research is equally important for various universities.
Here, we need to talk about Paige. When Michael went to perform tasks for the MIB, the little girl was not idle either
In just over two months, she published two academic papers through authoritative literary newspapers: "Advanced Mathematics and Network Programming" and "Conjecture on Network Artificial Intelligence."
In this era, when the internet had not been around for long, these two articles undoubtedly pioneered the field of network intelligent engineering.
"Go to the University of Texas to see Sheldon? No interest!" Michael shook his head.
He had a study plan for the next month, right up until the Christmas holiday.
Before the end of this semester, he would complete all four years of courses at Columbia University. Next year, depending on the situation, he would pursue graduate studies and could earn several doctoral degrees if needed.
His super high IQ, approaching two hundred, made these goals not difficult to achieve.
"Alright, I'll say hello to Sheldon for you..." As if thinking of something amusing, Paige's smile had a hint of mischief.