Take a bite of pudding
"Teacher, what are the five small goals?" The children were somewhat confused upon hearing the guiding words. The guide had already answered such questions countless times, so he said with a smile.
"This still happened 40 years ago!" The guide smiled and said, "It was in that small room. The thoughts of four people had a fierce collision. Each person had their own view of the future, and they predicted the future of themselves and the other three people 20 years later!"
Hearing this, all the children immediately became interested and clamored to ask how these four people made their predictions. The guide, naturally, had memorized all these prophecies, so he very smoothly went straight to say, "First, Mr. Huang He is standing here, speaking with great power and confidence. However, we will talk about Mr. Huang He's prediction last."
"Let's first look at Mr. Old Ma, who is standing to Mr. Huang He's left. He looks older, but at that time, he was still very young!"
"This Mr. Old Ma is now unknown, and not many people know his name. However, between 2000 and 2004, the company he founded, Four Great Bandits, was the best-developing e-commerce enterprise in the country and once had the opportunity to become the best e-commerce enterprise in China. My mother told me that her first online shopping was on Four Great Bandits!"
"He envisioned his future, believing that he could build his enterprise into the best e-commerce website in the world and possess a net worth of ten billion yuan!" the guide said.
"Did he succeed?" the children immediately asked curiously.
"No, he failed!" The guide shook his head. "Just a few years later, his company encountered numerous problems with delayed payments to sellers, as well as issues with illegal financing. In the end, this entrepreneur was imprisoned for ten years, and now no one knows where he is."
"He is working as a teacher!" Huang He sighed. "Actually, he has always been paying attention to Old Ma's movements, after all, this is Old Ma!"
However, after coming out, Old Ma seemed to have completely lost his original ambition and chose to return to being a university teacher.
Originally, it would have been difficult for someone with his prior record to become a university teacher. However, Mr. Huang was very soft-hearted at the time and secretly used his connections to get a university to accept Old Ma. He is now almost 80 years old, but he is still actively teaching and has become a professor, having taught many students.
"Ah!" The children immediately felt a bit regretful and then pointed to another younger person, asking about this person's outcome.
"His name is Little Ma. Not many people know this name now, but during that era, the Tengda Network he founded was once the largest and most user-populated instant messaging company in the world."
"He also sang about his future on-site, believing that he could possess a net worth of one hundred billion yuan and build his enterprise into the world's largest network company, comparable to Microsoft and Intel!" the guide said.
"Did he succeed?" the children asked one after another.
"No, he didn't either. Due to fierce market competition and his product development always failing to keep up with the times, he was ultimately abandoned by the times and investors. His Tengda Network was later merged into Microsoft, becoming one of Microsoft's subsidiaries in China. However, this did fulfill another prediction he made, which was to become a great company like Microsoft and Intel, so now Microsoft is also on the verge of bankruptcy."
"What a shame!" the children shook their heads again.
"Little Ma is quite a tough guy!" Mr. Huang muttered. Actually, the guide was not entirely correct, because Little Ma has now become a billionaire again.
When he realized he had completely lost control of the company that year, Little Ma decisively sold all his shares and left with tens of millions. For several years, he lived in a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters, enjoying a very comfortable retirement.
However, with the emergence of personal terminals, Little Ma decisively made his move again, investing in several personal terminal companies.
Later, when NetEase's stock plummeted, he bought a large number of NetEase shares, becoming the second-largest shareholder within NetEase, after Ding Sanshi.
Then, after a power struggle within NetEase, he actually ousted Ding Sanshi, became the boss of NetEase himself, and then went all out to enter the gaming industry.
Little Ma's most impressive feat is his complete lack of avoidance of past grudges. Ding Sanshi felt that his "Fantasy Westward Journey" was a super top-tier game and didn't need to cooperate with oo Network to share his profits.
But Little Ma chose to fully embrace oo Games, listing almost all of NetEase's games on oo. As expected, revenue surged. Just 20 years ago, Little Ma spent a small sum of money again to buy Tengda back from Microsoft.
Although Tengda was just an empty shell at this time, and the price was only 1.2 million yuan, Tengda ultimately returned to Little Ma's hands. Although Little Ma did not reach his predicted billionaire status, he still had a net worth of over ten billion yuan.
Not long ago, Huang He was still having dinner and drinks with Little Ma. They reminisced about the past and both smiled knowingly.
"Finally, let's look at the person standing opposite Mr. Huang He, who is the oldest and has a hint of disdain in his eyes. His name is Sun Yi, the chairman of the world's tenth-largest investment fund at the time, and the wealthiest person in the entire meeting room, with a net worth of over 3 billion US dollars!"
"This is 3 billion US dollars from 40 years ago, approximately equivalent to 30 billion US dollars today, or about 120 billion yuan. At that time, he was a truly rich man!" the guide said, and the children's mouths dropped open.
Although a bowl of noodles at any noodle shop today might cost over a hundred yuan, 120 billion yuan is still an unimaginable sum.
The guide continued, "Mr. Huang He himself only had tens of millions of yuan in total, a stark contrast to Mr. Sun Yi."
"Moreover, Mr. Sun Yi was the second most accurate in his predictions among the four people present. Old Ma and Little Ma's predictions both failed completely, while his prediction, although half failed, was half correct!"
"Which half was correct?" the children immediately asked curiously.
"He predicted that he would have a net worth of one hundred billion US dollars in 20 years, which failed. However, he predicted that he would not be able to meet Mr. Huang in 20 years, and this point he succeeded!" the guide said cheerfully.
The children wanted to ask about what happened next, such as why he couldn't meet Huang He in 20 years, but the guide remained silent.
"What do you mean? What are you saying? Are you saying that because he invested in all network companies except Jiangnan Group, his capital chain collapsed in 2010, and he tragically died of illness in a hospital?"
These are still children; they should still have some beautiful fantasies about the world.