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Chapter 111: The Right Person (1)
🕑 Added 2024-12-25 15:40:01 +0000 UTC"Baptism? I thought you weren't religious!" After saying goodbye to John, Josh went home and told Margaret about the baptism, but after listening, Margaret found it very strange.
After all, she had known Josh for almost two years, spent every day and night with him, and she had never seen Josh go to church.
It was fine if she was a Protestant, after all, Protestants didn't pay much attention to some of the Christian formalities.
But it didn't make sense that a Catholic had hardly ever been to church.
"Cough cough, it's just a ceremony, there's no reason to take it too seriously!" Josh said with some embarrassment. He couldn't really say that he didn't believe in anything, could he?
To say something that might be hard to believe, the United States, which claims to be a beacon of freedom, allows freedom of belief, which is fine.
It doesn't even matter if you believe in the Meow Meow religion or the Coriander religion.
But if you don't have any beliefs, that's a very serious problem.
Because in the eyes of Americans, people without religious beliefs have no moral constraints. Without moral constraints, there is no ultimate concern, and without ultimate concern, you cannot live a decent life. If you cannot live a decent life, there is no difference between human beings and animals.
So if a person wants to integrate into American society, you can have no beliefs in private, but you cannot say so in public, otherwise you will be rejected by mainstream society. (TL/N: The author is probably talking about the views of people from WW2)
When Margaret saw Josh's appearance, she immediately understood that he was not really a Christian.
She just looked at him and didn't take it seriously.
So what if he has no faith? He is her unbelieving husband!
But it's not a bad thing that her two children recognize Linus as their godfather. After all, when her father died that year, it was John and Linus who cared for her, along with the messy David.
So Margaret agreed without hesitation.
That evening, John also arrived at Josh's mansion with a gift.
And when they saw the gift John had brought, both Josh and Margaret were very surprised.
"Uncle John, this is too much!" Margaret said, looking at the stock transfer agreement in her hands.
The shares in the transfer agreement were the shares in her father's jewelry business that Margaret had sold years ago. It had been worth over two million then, and would be worth three or four times that today.
But now 90% of that business had been divided into two equal parts and given to the two children.
Why not 100%? Because Margaret already had the other 10%.
Of course, the price of this share is nothing to Josh, who is already rich, but it obviously means a lot to Margaret.
"It's nothing, and don't turn it down. It's a gift for the children, not for you. Even if you refuse it, the two children will have to turn it down for themselves when they grow up. And you don't have to worry about the management. My people will continue to run the business, and all you have to do is pay their salaries! John said with a smile,
Josie nodded in agreement. It seemed that John was a master of the wife-pleasing game. With this strategy, Josh could never afford to ignore the Leibler family in the Chicago Consortium.
Obviously, John had already seen from the conversation earlier in the day that the resources Josh had in Europe were unexpectedly powerful.
If not now, when?
This was a bit much, and Margaret couldn't make up her mind, so she looked at Josh.
"Take it, dear, it's from your Uncle John!" Josh nodded, indicating that she should accept it.
It was only a few million, and when they got back to Europe they would make it back many times over.
Much of the profits themselves were to be shared with the nominal partners of the Chicago conglomerate. In that case, why not give the majority to the Leibler family, who had better personal connections?
"Thank you for your hospitality. Your chef is very good, especially that Ferdinand chicken, I really like it. But Josh, before I leave, I still feel that I should advise you that you're still short of people who can stand on their own!” John mentioned this as they parted after dinner.
Josh was a little taken aback by what he heard, but then he nodded.
He had to admit that what John had said was indeed a problem.
Even though Josh is rich now, there are not many people under him who can really hold their own.
The most outstanding one is actually an old man named Lynden.
Originally, the business in the United States was within his grasp, of course, but with the expansion of the European business, the situation changed after Lynden went to Europe.
As for the Blackwater Gang, Dix is good at fighting and killing, and he is also good at gathering information, but business matters are really a bit difficult for him.
After Josh told Lynden to go to Europe, he complained to Josh more than once that he no longer had a reliable manager.
As for Josh's own business, the managers of the various factories are not bad, but they are not very good either. They are just average. The two managers of the two movie companies he later acquired are relatively outstanding.
Before going to Europe, Josh had planned to let Brad and Pete compete for the position.
However, because Pete was in charge of the little bitch Angela, they first took her to the war front to participate for charity, and then she hooked up with Joseph Kennedy—by the way, according to the information Josh received, after Joseph Kennedy died, the little bitch hooked up with his brother, who came to the funeral.
Good guy, this also played the brother-in-law.
Under these circumstances, the plan to make her famous naturally fell through.
Instead, The Sound of Music starring Sabrina, which Brad was in charge of, has already been filmed and is ready to be released in the Christmas season.
Under these circumstances, the two of them could no longer compete fairly.
But it was also a bit of a waste to have the two of them running DreamWorks together, so when it was already expected in Europe that Angela, that little bitch, would never come back, Josh gave Pete an option as compensation, to go to the Blue Network, which he had bought, but which had never really taken off and had been renamed ABC.
There was no doubt that Josh had bought ABC in preparation for starting a television network in the future.
However, with the war still going on, Josh was unable to obtain much production capacity to produce television programs under economic control.
Therefore, in the short term, ABC could only stick to its old business of radio broadcasting.
As a result, the manager Josh had just hired was obviously not very good, and the company continued to lose money with no improvement in sight.
Although Josh did not have high expectations for ABC, he did not want the company to lose too much money.
To Josh's surprise, Pete quickly turned the network around after joining ABC. Although it is still not profitable, losses and debt have been reduced to a very low level, and profits are just around the corner.
However, Josh still does not have enough reliable people under him.
Especially for the upcoming acquisition of Continental Bank, Josh will definitely have to send a reliable person to take charge.
Bring Lynden back? That guy has never done finance before, but he has a PhD in economics, so it shouldn't be a problem.
But the problem is, after bringing him back, what about Europe?
Hand it over to Ophelia?
There's no doubt that this future Lady Hydra is a capable all-rounder.
But when it comes to business, she's no match for Lynden.
Not to mention that no one but her can handle the Hydra Europe mess.
Vito? The boy has no problem with loyalty, but his knowledge about business is only average. He's good at all kinds of dirty work, but business? Forget it.
But at that moment a figure came to Josh's mind.
Yes, he might be a good choice!
