Chapter 915: The Mellon Family

"Mr. Xia, I've heard of Polaris Capital. It was founded a short time ago, but its investments have always been amazing. The people who can become the chairman of a company of this caliber are basically financial elites over the age of 50.'

'But if you attribute your strength to luck, then I would rather believe that you are God's bastard.'

Although George W. Bush was speaking in a joking manner, his tone was solemn.

Afterwards, he asked, 'Mr. Xia, I don't mean to be rude, but you shouldn't be under 20 years old, right?'

Xia Yu smiled and shook his head, saying, 'Not yet.'

'Then you probably didn't go to university.'

'Yes, my family was in a difficult situation, so I had to enter the workforce early.'

'Then you are a genius among geniuses. Your experience and achievements are admirable. When I was your age, I just hung around at university and fell in love. I suddenly feel very ashamed.'

...

The future President George W. Bush was famous for his humour, but in fact, at this age, he was already like this.

The two of them seemed to be familiar with each other. George W. Bush spoke with a witty sense of humour, and Xia Yu could talk to anyone about anything. Unconsciously, the two of them had talked a lot.

'Cheers to our meeting!'

'That's what it's all about!'

'Clink!'

'Hahahaha...'

After clinking glasses and drinking, the two men smiled at each other, and their relationship grew closer.

Both leaned slightly casually on the sofa, watching the men and women dancing in the centre of the dance floor with an appreciative attitude and posture.

Of course, to be precise, they were appreciating the beautiful ladies.

According to later social research, two men get together, and no matter where the conversation starts, 90% of the time it will be about women...

Xia Yu was still thinking about working with George W. Bush.

So he picked up the conversation again: 'Mr. Bush, now that global oil prices have skyrocketed, you have an oil company, which is a feast for you.'

'After all, oil is the lifeblood of industry, and with oil prices so high right now, I'm thinking about entering the oil sector sometime. If there's a chance, can I visit your company?'

When George W. Bush heard the first sentence, he was thinking of bragging, but after Xia Yu's second sentence, he was suddenly embarrassed and swallowed what he was going to say.

He knew exactly what the situation was with his company, Bush Energy. Just looking at the business card would definitely make you think it was something big, but in reality it was a mess.

If Xia Yu really went for a visit, the bigger the brag he made now, the more embarrassed he would be in the future.

So he quickly thought of an excuse and simply shrugged, saying self-deprecatingly, 'This is indeed a feast for oil industry professionals, but unfortunately, I'm not yet qualified to participate. My company has been exploring for oil and natural gas in Texas, but unfortunately, so far, we haven't found any.'

'Texas is the most oil-rich state in the United States, and I believe that as long as you are willing to invest, you will always find oil,'

Xia Yu said with a smile.

George W. Bush's smile was a little bitter, and he smiled reluctantly, 'Maybe, who knows in the future, exploring for oil is too dependent on luck.'

When his father explored for oil in Midland, Texas, the probability of finding oil was 137 to 1. This was considered very lucky, and it was called "a hundred hits in a hundred shots". And that was more than twenty years ago!

His company, Bush Energy, has explored more than 300 blocks in the two years since 1979, not counting the year it was inactive in 1978. It has spent more than 280 million of the 3 million dollars it was founded with, and has not yet discovered an oil field. It is in no way comparable to his father, George H.W. Bush.

Every day the company is in business, it is losing money. If it doesn't find oil soon, Bush Energy will go bankrupt!

He is now facing embarrassment from those shareholders and his uncle, Jonathan Bush.

After all, after he graduated from Harvard Business School with an MBA, it was his uncle, Jonathan Bush, who brought in more than 20 shareholders for his Bush Energy company, with a total investment of 3 million US dollars. Now, after three years, not even a single cent in profit has been made, which is a disgrace to the Bush family.

Unless he discovers a valuable oil field before the company goes bankrupt,

Otherwise, he will have to find a way to continue to attract investment for his Bush Energy Company. No matter what, he will not let Bush Energy Company go bankrupt. The Bush family cannot afford to lose face!

'Exploration for oil does require a lot of luck. After all, it has been more than 100 years since oil was discovered in Texas. People have gone to Texas to explore for oil one after another, and basically the area has been explored. It is now too difficult to explore, and the success rate is too low!'

'But as long as you buy the latest exploration equipment and keep investing in exploration, you will always find oil.'

Xia Yu sighed, then encouraged him.

Although it was encouraging words, when he heard them, Bush felt even worse.

It was easy for Xia Yu to say, but the key was that he had no money to continue gambling!

Just then, Xia Yu suddenly asked with interest, 'Mr. Bush, I just want to enter the oil industry and have a look, I don't know if your company is willing to accept a new shareholder?'

George W. Bush was taken aback, but then nodded without hesitation: 'Of course you are welcome, Mr. Xia. Would you like to invest in my company?'

'Of course. I wonder how big your company is?' Xia Yu nodded affirmatively.

After weighing up the situation for a moment, George W. Bush said, 'Although my company has not yet discovered any oil, it has already leased a lot of land, and there are other assets as well. I think it is currently worth around 8 million US dollars.'

Xia Yu knew that Bush Jr. had overstated the value, but he didn't care. It was just an overstatement of a million or two dollars, which was a small amount of money to him.

The biggest gain would be to be able to invest in Bush Jr. now and forge a relationship between the two!

He asked directly, 'Since you say it's worth 8 million dollars, then it's worth 8 million dollars. I'm just not sure how much more equity you can give up?'

Xia Yu's trust was a bit of a surprise to Bush Jr., and it also warmed his heart.

He thought for a moment and said, 'At most ten percent. If it's more, I'll have to discuss it with the other shareholders before I can come to a decision.'

Xia Yu frowned and said with some disdain, "Ten percent is too little, it's not interesting.'

He immediately asked, "By the way, Mr. Bush, I wonder how many shareholders your company currently has?'

George W. Bush said honestly, "Twenty-four shareholders.'

Xia Yu's eyebrows shot up, and he pretended to be surprised and said, "That many?'

'Then I wonder if any of those shareholders are willing to transfer their shares? I want to buy the shares they have!'

George W. Bush's heart stirred a little. He of course knew that most shareholders were no longer interested in their stakes in Bush Energy, and were only not willing to withdraw voluntarily because of the Bush family name.

Moreover, since the investment capital was relatively small, generally in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, it was not a lot of money for the big shots.

He guessed that at this point, many people were prepared to throw their money away.

If he was willing to help Xia Yu acquire it, he believed that many shareholders would gladly accept.

He thought for a moment and said in the right words, 'I'm not sure yet. I'll have to ask them.'

'I wonder, Mr Xia, how much equity you hope to obtain?'

Xia Yu immediately replied, 'At least 45%, and if all the shareholders are willing to transfer, it would be best to reach 50%. We split it 50-50, what do you think?'

'Mr Xia is so optimistic about my company?'

George W. Bush asked in surprise.

In Texas, there were simply too many unproductive oil companies like his. Exploring for oil was a highly risky gamble, so as long as there was no oil field, no matter how much equity it had, it was worthless and would require even more investment.

Many people would not invest in an oil exploration company.

If you give an old cowboy from Texas who explores for oil a million dollars, he will at least divide it into 100,000-dollar investments in ten promising oil exploration companies, or even more specifically into exploration projects, rather than investing in just one company.

This method of diversification cannot guarantee instant super-riches, but it can greatly increase the probability of success, allow your investment to appreciate in value, and have more money to roll over, accumulating wealth step by step.

Nowadays...after all, it's not the era of drilling and immediately finding oil, as it was more than a hundred years ago!

'Of course, I think you are more likely to succeed than others! I also believe in your luck!'

Xia Yu said with a smile.

George W. Bush was silent, and he was more inclined to believe that Xia Yu wanted to cooperate with the Bush family through him. He had encountered this situation many times.

However, there was really no reason for him to refuse Xia Yu's request to send money to him. He needed the funds too much!

Therefore, he said with a smile, 'Thank you for your blessing, Mr. Xia. I still need you to wait for my news. I will notify you by phone at that time.'

'No problem!'

'But it has to be soon. I plan to leave the United States in early February, and I don't know how many months it will be before I come back.'

'Okay, I'll do it as soon as possible.'

At this point, there was no need for further discussion. Xia Yu once again raised his glass and drank a little with George W. Bush, looking forward to future cooperation.

'Mr. Xia, my wife is waving at me. I'm going to go dance for a few dances.'

'Okay!'

After watching George W. Bush enter the dance floor, Xia Yu looked around a little bored and noticed that the area was relatively empty. Obviously, the people around them had politely sat a little further away so as not to disturb them while he was talking business with George W. Bush.

Just then, he noticed someone approaching him, not one person, but five people, two men and three women.

Xia Yu recognised two of the men and one of the women. They were the ones who had just followed Richard King Mellon in, and they might just be Richard King Mellon's children.

As for the other two young ladies, he didn't recognise them.

When they reached Xia Yu, one of the younger ones, who looked older, greeted Xia Yu, and then the five of them sat down one after the other.

'May I know your name? I'm Leonard Mellon, here's my business card.'

Upon hearing his name, Xia Yu immediately remembered that this young man in his twenties was the third son of Richard King Mellon.

'Of course, I'm Xia Yu, and here's my card,'

Xia Yu said with a smile, and exchanged business cards with him.

After he started the ball rolling, the other three women and one man also spoke to him cordially, and Xia Yu gave them his business card as well, learning their identities from their names.

One of the boys, who was obviously around 18 or 19 years old, was named Woodrow Mellon. He was Ronald Mellon's younger brother, and the fourth son of Richard King Mellon.

Based on his past life memories, Xia Yu knew quite a bit about the Mellon family. The current head of the family, Richard King Mellon, had eight children, four sons and four daughters.

The eldest son, Richard Mellon Skiff, has no interest in the family business and is not interested in power. He prefers art and charity, much to Richard King Mellon's disappointment.

The second son, Timothy Mellon, is keen on computer technology and has gone off to start his own computer company. Obviously, he is not a qualified family heir, much to Richard King Mellon's disappointment.

Instead, Richard King Mellon was deeply fond of his third son, Leonard Mellon, and fourth son, Woodrow Mellon, because these two sons were very intelligent and hardworking, determined to expand the family business from a young age, and were very interested in the family business.

However, these two sons were both born late in life. In their previous life, when Richard King Mellon died, these two sons were still too young to become a qualified successor.

Richard King Mellon's position as head of the family came from his own uncle, Andrew Mellon, because his cousin, Paul Mellon, also disliked power and was keen on horse racing and art.

Just because Paul Mellon didn't like it, it doesn't mean his sons didn't.

When Richard King Mellon was still alive, Paul Mellon's sons didn't dare to fart.

However, after Richard King Mellon died, his sons were unable to successfully become qualified successors, which ultimately led to the Mellon family becoming loose.

It was thanks to the family trust and charitable foundation that the Mellon family did not split up and the Mellon conglomerate was able to continue to exist.

However, the Mellon family lacked successors, and the Mellon conglomerate, with the Mellon family as its sole core, naturally also lacked people who could make decisions.

Therefore, since the death of Richard King Mellon, despite the hard work of Leonard Mellon and Woodrow Mellon, they have only been able to maintain the Mellon Foundation from disbanding, but the influence and strength of the Mellon Foundation has continued to be surpassed.

Except for Xia Yu, a special case of a demon, the young fox is no match for the old fox!

This shows how important it is to cultivate future generations. It takes at least 20 years to cultivate a single generation!

Back to the topic.

Of the five, apart from the two brothers Leonard and Woodrow Mellon, one of the girls is named Cindy Mellon. Xia Yu estimates that she is around 20 years old and is Richard King Mellon's youngest daughter. She is older than Leonard Mellon and younger than Woodrow Mellon.

As for the other two girls, Susan Anthony and Renee Camila, they were both in their twenties and, judging from their words and actions, perfectly matched the temperament of the descendants of a large family.

'Mr. Xia, I just saw you chatting with my father and Mr. David Rockefeller. I really admire you,'

Leonard Mellon said with great restraint, looking at Xia Yu with sincere eyes and admiration.

His words attracted the attention of the other four people, especially the three beautiful girls, who looked at him with curious eyes. If it were an ordinary person, his heart rate would definitely accelerate, but Xia Yu barely managed to remain calm.

With a smile on his lips, he asked, 'Why do you say that?'

Leonard Mellon immediately said, 'Even when facing my father, I feel very uncomfortable. If I were to face Mr Rockefeller and Mr DuPont, I wouldn't know what to say, but you can talk and laugh with them. I want to have a performance of this level, but I don't know how many years of practice it will take.'