Laying a Foundation

Michael spent three hours going through dozens of countries before he finally picked one. His first choice was actually Mexico, due to its proximity to America and the support the soldiers received from American forces. Sadly that was the very reason why Michael had to cross it out. America kept Mexico under heavy surveillance and it would be a bad place to build a base in. Of course, Once his base was established he could recruit followers from all over the world. But until then, he had to be cautious when making his first step.

Michael ended up choosing India; It seemed to meet all of his requirements except for the distance. However, the distance was an issue for all other options too. Furthermore, India was one of the poorest countries on the list except for the countries in Africa.

The biggest advantage India had was the ridiculous population. With over one billion people, just how many natural talents would be born in India? If Mozart was a one in a million genius then that means that India had over a thousand Mozarts. Michael knew that finding people with high talents meant scouring through a huge list to narrow it down to the talented few. His traders were the perfect example; he initially went through the resumes of hundreds of people before finally hiring 25 and only 14 of them were kept.

Michael would need to be more cautious when picking his soldiers; so he would go through millions of candidates to find the right soldiers. Although China had a bigger population, the government had a more hands-on approach to control; they also closely watched the activities of foreigners. In India, he could amass soldiers without having to worry about anything. Worst case scenario, he will just bribe the local authorities and make them turn a blind eye.

Now that he knew what country to start recruiting from, Michael needed to figure out how to get started. The problem was that he did not have any contacts. How was he going to recruit soldiers of the Indian army? Even if he can find some soldiers to recruit; How was he supposed to ensure their loyalty? Of course, Michael intended to offer them high salaries; but is that enough to ensure allegiance forever?

Michael needed to offer them something more than money. He can give them skills and make them his followers, but he only wanted to do that once he was confident of their sincerity. Of course, he planned on using the deception detection skill to routinely interrogate all his followers to verify their integrity. However, there was still the problem of initially reeling them in.

Since he did not have any ideas, Michael decided to ask Jennifer. After all, she must have experience recruiting talents for her previous companies. Michael called her cell phone.

" Hey Michael, What's up?" Jennifer answered.

" Jennifer, I was wondering if you can give me some tips on recruiting talented individuals. How do you attract their attention?"

" Well, there are a couple of things you need to do. First, you must understand what that person truly desires. Is it Money? Knowledge? Authority? It's not always about giving the highest salary; sometimes they want more freedom in their workplace. Some want part ownership in the company because they want a say in how its run. Each person will have something that they are looking for; the first step is to find out what that desire is." Jennifer explained. She had years of experience poaching talented employees from rival companies. This was one area she could definitely help Michael with.

Jennifer continued. " The second step is to make them an offer based on their desires. You must give them what nobody else can or is willing to offer. For example, if you are trying to recruit a young college graduate; most companies would not be willing to offer him a position with responsibilities. But most graduates want a job with challenges and responsibilities so they can grow. You must offer them such a position; if there is no such role in your company, then make one."

Michael understood what Jennifer was trying to say. Basically, he needed a unique selling point that would attract the talents. He thanked Jennifer for the advice and hang up.

In reality, Michael already had a unique selling point; nobody else can offer the skills from the system. However, that was for after they gained his trust. He needed something else to initially reel them in. He decided to meditate for a while; most of his brilliant ideas came to him during meditation.

After meditating for two hours he finally had the perfect solution. He walked to his computer and started browsing the database of the Indian Military. Specifically, he hacked into the servers where all military personnel records were being kept. The Indian military had recently gone through a modernization phase and all of their files had been digitized. Michael sneaked into the servers and instantly had access to the records of millions of soldiers and ex-soldiers.

Michael found the section for soldiers who retired due to Medical reasons. Specifically, he was looking for soldiers that were injured in the military. He was looking for people with illnesses that could not be cured by modern medicine. He thought that disabled vets were the perfect targets for multiple reasons. This was where Michael would come in; he could offer these dying fighters another chance at life. First, he can use his healing skill to cure them; that is an offer nobody else can make.

Second, because they were injured in the war they would have less loyalty towards the country. Sure when they first got dismissed they would get medals and everyone would thank them for their service to the country. However, as the years passed away they would have to watch their life fall apart leaving them without the ability to fix it. They would just have to wait for death and the people thanking them initially would not be around anymore. They would regret their choices; regret fighting for their country and being left to die alone. This would ensure that when they join his empire they would not have any hesitations because of their previous fealties.

Of course, not all countries treated their disabled vets poorly. But no amount of money can let a crippled man walk again. Fortunately, India was one of the countries where disabled vets suffered. This made things easier for Michael. Sure the Indian military has been trying to do more; however, the military simply did not have enough funds to give proper compensation.

The last reason was that it would be easy to find these soldiers. Their records would give all the details of their military career and list all of their physical traits; That was enough information for Michael to use the Talent Recognition skill. He could also find out where they lived by looking at the home address on file.

Michael spent one week going through the records of the ex-soldiers. He narrowed down the list and compiled a list of potential candidates. He went through each of their files and read the notes left by the previous superiors. This way he figured out the character of the candidates. Now that he had his list, the next step was to fly to India. It was time to finally start developing his army. It was time to lay the foundations of his empire.