Translator: Khan
Editor: Alryinth
“Meet An MBE Super Ant. Let’s meet for the first time in the new year of 2019. It’s Han Sang-hoon, the young CEO of Invictus Investment.”
At the end of the MC’s remarks, the audience applauded. I swallowed once and then moved on. It was a recording show that had already finished rehearsing once, but I was quite nervous.
The young and beautiful MC spoke eye to eye. “I’ve hosted “Meet An MBE Super Ant as an MC, but I think he is the youngest CEO ever. Excuse me, how old are you?”
“I am thirty this year.”
“You are CEO Han Sang-hoon, who turns thirty this year, has founded and has been running an investment company called Invictus Investment, aren’t you?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Oh, that’s great! You started your own company when the other guys were looking for a job.”
“Yes, I’ve dreamed of starting a business since I was a student. I’ve been lucky to be able to follow my dream.”
“So, how much are the current assets of the Invictus Investment you founded?” The male MC said, looking at the manuscripts that had been prepared. “What? Seventy-five million dollars?” He already knew, but he was good at acting.
Even the audience was sold when they saw his performance.
“Seventy-five million dollars?”
“At that age?”
“In the world!”
The murmurs were heard gradually.
‘This is not including the money in my personal accounts…’
The male MC went on to say, “At the age of thirty, a CEO. Seventy-five million dollars in assets. Then, the viewers and audience may have an idea. Let me ask you a little rudely. What’s your father doing? Running a company? Or…”
“My father runs a judo training center in a normal manner.”
“Oh, really? Then what about your grandfather?”
“My grandfather used to be an ordinary farmer…”
“Did you have a lot of lands, then?”
I laughed and waved, “No, that’s not it at all.”
“So, were you not born in a rich family?”
“Correct. I should say that my home is a little less than the middle class of moderate wealth. It was just a normal home.”
“Then, you’re a self-made man. Can you tell me a little bit about what happened?”
“I’ve had quite a bit of luck in the beginning. It’s hard to go into details.”
It was really hard to go into details. However, there was a prearranged manuscript before the recording.
“You mean Lotto or Bitcoin or something?”
“Oh, yes. Those things…” I let the early stories crumble in this way. There was a difference between what I said here and there, and it was not something that deserved to be said. I went on to say, “That’s how I got started with five million dollars in capital.”
“Wow!” The audience seemed to be focusing on five million dollars rather than my story itself.
“But, it became seventy-five million dollars?”
“Yes…”
There was no problem saying something else, but when I lied, my mouth seemed to be burning. Currently, my assets in January 2019 were around two hundred million dollars, not seventy-five million. The assets of Invictus Investment were the seventy-five, and the other one hundred twenty-five million was in my personal accounts.
The female MC asked me, “Then, it’s five million dollars growing to seventy-five million… Approximately fifteen times over. So it was all increased by investments?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a little hard to believe.”
At the words of the female MC, the male MC cut in. “I know. Some people were recently arrested for faking their own success stories. Do you do Facebook or Instagram?”
I shook my head, “No, I don’t do that.”
“Why? Aren’t many young people doing it?”
“I don’t have the time to do that.”
“Huh… if you’re going to do that, I am going to go in right now. I am wondering if there might be luxury real estate or foreign cars bragging.”
‘It is only for swindlers trying to cheat by showing off their own financial resources. He who has real money, and he who makes money, have no reason to do such things.’
I shook my head and said, “I don’t like doing that much.”
“Oh, you don’t like foreign cars or luxury real estate?”
“No. I like a good house, a good car, and everything. It’s just that I don’t want to brag about it. It doesn’t look very good in the world these days. That’s my opinion.”
The female MC nodded and said, “You have a sound mind. You seem a little distant from a con artist, just by looking at what you’re saying.”
I said honestly, “Yes, I’ve never encouraged anyone to invest. Instead, I would rather ask individual investors not to invest in stocks.”
As I said, the MCs as well as the audience, looked quite surprised. I was on a stock-related broadcast and told them not to do it.
“That’s amazing. Don’t do stocks?”
I nodded with conviction, “Yes.”
“You’ve earned tens of million dollars in stocks, and you tell others not to do… It’s a bit ironic. Can you tell me why?”
“First of all, individuals have difficulty accessing key information that affects the rise and fall of stock prices. Their information acquisition is often a day or two slower than others.” This was the case with people like me.
“Secondly… there are quite a few people who arbitrarily manipulate stock prices…” This referred to someone like Director Tak Joon-ki.
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“In that sense, it is very difficult for individual investors to make money in the stock market. So I want to tell them not to invest in stocks.”
Of course, just because I told them not to do, there would be no one who would not. Everyone in the audience was like that right now. They paid careful attention to “I made seventy-five million dollars,” but they would ignore my words, “Don’t invest in stocks.”
‘The one who wants to do the stock trading will do it in the end, and the one who doesn’t want to, won’t do it, even if others recommend him to do so, I think.’
“Then, why did you set up an investment company? Don’t you attract funds from other investors?
“Our company neither receives nor recommends investment from ordinary investors. Invictus Investment is my personal investment company that runs on my own assets.”
“Oh, I see. It’s a private investment company that doesn’t take investments from others.”
“Yes, I was going to run the fund alone, but… it’s too big to do that. I was just set up a company because I needed help from others to take over another company.”
“So, you’re saying you won’t accept any investment from the public in the future?”
“Correct. First of all, until it I’m running about a billion dollars, and I start investing abroad in earnest, I’m not going to do that. I don’t need that much money right now.”
The male MC opened his eyes wide and said, “A billion dollars?”
“Yes.”
“You’ve got about seventy-five billion in assets now; that means you’re going to have to make ten or fifteen times more profit.”
I said bluntly, “That’s about it.”
The male MC laughed and said, “Haha, if that happens, I’ll invest in it right away. No, then please take my money!” At his words, the audience giggled.
“Yes, by then, I’ll be back on this show. But before that, I’d like to do well with my own money. I don’t need any money until I invest overseas.”
“You’re very confident. A billion dollars!”
I raised my head and said, “Maybe not that far. Five years at a stretch, maybe two or three years at a short.”
Actually, I was expecting it to happen within a year, but I said so for now. Five years, two or three years, it seemed to sound crazy to them.
The male MC also smiled and said, “Huh. That would be a great thing to do.” He squinted his eyes and looked at me. After a moment he said, “I’m going to invest in it right away. No, please take my money!”, but he did not believe me at all.
‘Huh! You think it’s ridiculous that you’ve been hosting this show as an MC for a few years on Economic TV. Half a year from now, I won’t accept your money even if you ask me to take it.’
The female MC turned the spotlight around. “The company that you made that way has taken over two companies, OH Entertainment and Kai Games. I don’t know what you’ve seen and invested that way…”
“I choose a company that I know well and that I will know well.”
“What you know well and what you will know well?”
“Yes.”
“Do you have a little bit deep knowledge in entertainment or games?”
“I think I can judge people pretty well and I am also very interested in the games. So I invested in entertainment and game companies.”
The recording continued. At first, I was quite nervous, but as time went by, I grew accustomed to the broadcasting.
“What if you could tell us the secret of successful stock investment?”
“I watch the news a lot”
“News”?
“Yes, the news tells the present story, but over time it becomes the past. In the past, there was some news that led to a rise in stocks, and that’s what I’m focusing on. I spend a lot of time predicting what the news will be like in the future.”
“I see.”
“If you could recommend a stock…?”
“It’s a little bit too much to say… …but both of the companies we’ve invested in are promising.”
“OH Entertainment and Kai Games?”
“Yes. I think they’re both going to have a storm surge this year.”
“You said that you don’t take any investment from other people’s money, so you’re recommending companies you’ve invested in?” the male MC asked rashly.
‘This guy is just not likable!’ I thought about it and spoke a little out of the script. “To be honest, I think it’s a little absurd for analysts to recommend people to buy this and that. If it’s a really good stock, they should buy it themselves. Why would they let a person make money? I simply bought stocks that I thought they were good, and I can’t tell you because I don’t own any other stocks.”
My comments made the audience quiet. I was sure they’d all bought a lot of stocks that someone had recommended. I carried on my talk.
“In the case of Kai Games, I bought the shares of the first major shareholder and the third major shareholder, and then I raised my stake to sixty percent through the open-market purchase. I’ve spent my money. Spending my own money to buy stocks is the clearest and most certain recommendation, isn’t it? If the stock prices fall, I’m the one who loses the most.”
The female MC nodded and said, “That’s true.”
I spoke clearly to the camera watching me, “Watch the stock prices of OH Entertainment and Kai Games this year. You’ll soon find out whether I’m telling you the truth or not.”
“Thanks for your time.”
—————
I was coming out of the broadcast and asked Secretary Seo, “How was it?”
“You were good. Just like that! There was an impact.”
“What are the reporters saying?”
There were also quite a few economic journalists here. That was why I responded to the show in the first place so that my name and our company names would show more on the news.
“First of all, I heard they liked it because they have a lot of stuff to write about, ‘CEO Han Sang-hoon’s confident interview. What will happen in the future?’ ”
‘In these securities broadcasts, big hands usually say vaguely in this way, “Oh, yes, but it can climb, it can take off.” That’s what they say because they might be wrong later.’
But I looked at the camera and made a confident promise that the prices of the stocks I had bought would rise.
“If things go well, you’ll be a hero, but… if they don’t, you might become a swindler in no time…,” Secretary Seo said cautiously.
But I said bluntly, “Yeah. Okay, this is a bet too. A hero or a con artist. Let’s see what happens.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?”
I patted Secretary Seo on the chest and said, “Look, do you see me losing on the bet?”