Aristotle Sokratis onassis's Entrepreneurial Course

1906, Aristotle Sokratis onassis was born in Izmir, near the Aegean Sea. Onassis's parents' tobacco business is very prosperous, and their family life is quite rich. Because of better family conditions, onassis received a good education from an early age. 1922, when onassis was preparing to go to a German university, the Turks occupied Izmir. Then, onassis and his parents were arrested, detained and put into prison. As onassis was still young, he was soon released. After returning home, he took out his father's money from the safe and bailed the whole family out. This year, onassis was only 16 years old.

After his release from prison, onassis's family could no longer stay in Izmir. 1922 In September, their family followed1500,000 refugees from Asia Minor and flooded into Greece. Where can poor and small Greece accommodate so many refugees? Not to mention providing employment opportunities for these refugees. Therefore, the onassis family can't find a job anywhere in Greece. In such a desperate situation, onassis bid farewell to his parents and little sister, and went across the ocean alone to the American continent, which was then called the Golden Box continent.

Onassis arrived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on a junk ship bound for Argentina. Soon after, he found a job as an electric welder in a telephone company. At that time, the telephone company implemented the piece-rate system, and any immigrant could get a lot of money as long as he worked hard. Forced by life, onassis works 16 hours a day, and sometimes even works overtime all night. In order to save some money, he shared a bed with another wage earner, and they took turns sleeping. After an unusually hard life, onassis accumulated a considerable sum of money. When onassis had some savings, he began to prepare his own business plan. Onassis has chosen the tobacco industry as its investment target. In Argentina, people have a hobby of smoking and are addicted to it, so tobacco is more popular.

At that time, the tobacco industry in South America was monopolized by big bosses and it was difficult to get in. However, onassis found a breakthrough from his unique addiction: he found that tobacco in South America and Argentina was not as soft as that in Greece, and many Greeks, including onassis himself, were not used to smoking strong cigarettes in Argentina. They often ask people to buy cigarettes from Greece to smoke, but there are few markets selling Greek cigarettes in Argentina. The keen onassis saw the hope of success, so he positioned the market in Greek cigarettes. Seeing the opportunity, onassis resigned from the telephone company and put all his money and energy into it.

At first, onassis could only set up a handmade cigarette workshop at home. After cigarettes are produced, they can't be sold. Onassis had an idea-he managed to get a famous singer to slap them in front of the TV camera. As it turns out, this idea is really a surprise! Because the singer has a lot of fans, smoking Greek cigarettes has become a fashion in Argentina, and his handmade products are in short supply! Therefore, onassis decided to expand the production scale. He borrowed money everywhere and bought a cigarette machine, specializing in the production of Greek cigarettes. In less than two years, he earned nearly 6,543,800 pesos.

Successful use of disasters

Onassis is not satisfied with this. He knows that it is impossible for a small individual workshop to really make big money. What really makes money is tobacco trade and tobacco transportation. He chartered a boat and started his transportation career. In just four years, he made a profit of $300,000 and became an outstanding representative of Greek expatriates, which was widely concerned and respected by Argentina. From 65438 to 0930, onassis, who was only 24 years old, had millions of assets, and became the largest importer of Greek products and the largest foreign exchange provider in the country, with increasing influence in Argentina. Onassis was appointed by the Greek government as the Greek Consul General in Buenos Aires.

Just as onassis's official and commercial transportation capital was booming, an economic crisis swept the world broke out. Under the impact of this economic crisis, world trade is paralyzed, and maritime trade bears the brunt. 193 1 year's traffic volume is 35% of that of 1928, and many huge ships sailing at sea lose their use instantly. However, onassis has not become a victim of this crisis. On the contrary, he seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and made a fortune.

At that time, onassis got a message that a Canadian company suffered heavy losses in this crisis and wanted to sell six cargo ships. These cargo ships were worth 2 million dollars 10 years ago, but now they only sell for 20,000 dollars each. Even so, nobody cares. On hearing the news, onassis made a decisive decision and rushed to Canada without hesitation, and bought six old ships at a price of $654.38+$2,000. At that time, many people regarded onassis's strange behavior as irrational madness and thought that he was just looking for a burial place for himself. But onassis firmly believes that the crisis will pass one day, and the good days will come, and this cargo ship will definitely regain its due value. This economic crisis finally triggered a world war-World War II. When the war broke out, a large number of merchant ships and cargo ships were needed to transport wartime munitions and daily necessities, which provided a good opportunity for those who owned ships-onassis bought six cargo ships in Canada and brought him huge wealth overnight. Onassis finally realized his dream for many years and became a veritable big shipowner-because of his unique course of becoming a shipowner, he got the nickname of chance shipowner.

After World War II, onassis was keenly aware that the economies of various countries would enter the stage of rapid post-war revival and reconstruction. However, the great development of economy will inevitably greatly stimulate human demand for oil and other energy sources, and the substantial increase in oil consumption will inevitably lead to a substantial increase in tanker freight. Therefore, while other shipowners were still holding a wait-and-see attitude towards the post-war development, onassis immediately drew a large sum of money from its merchant fleet to invest in the construction of oil tankers, making full preparations for the future oil war.

Just like chopping bamboo.

1953 In the midsummer, onassis and his wife Tina arrived in Jeddah, the port of Mecca, a holy place of Islam, on a private luxury yacht named after their daughter Christina.

At that time, the rich oil in Arabia attracted the attention of the world. Aramco and its shareholders monopolized the exploitation of Arabian oil. When onassis arrived in Mecca, he was warmly welcomed. Onassis had a long secret meeting with the elderly Saudi King, and before he left, he also had a long meeting with Crown Prince Abdullah. Aramco signed a very clear monopoly oil exploitation contract with the King of Saudi Arabia. According to the contract, Aramco has the monopoly right to exploit oil, and uses its own tankers to transport the exploited oil to all parts of the world for sale. For every ton of oil produced, it will pay a considerable royalty to the King of Saudi Arabia. However, the shrewd onassis found a small loophole in this contract, that is, there is no explicit provision in the contract to exclude Saudi Arabia from owning its own oil tankers for oil transportation. Onassis's Mecca Bank pointed this out to the King of Saudi Arabia, and he was willing to provide oil tankers for Saudi Arabia, thus entering Saudi oil in one fell swoop. Onassis lobbied the Saudi King: Aramco can make twice as much money by exploiting your oil and selling it through transportation. Why not buy a boat to transport it yourself?

In order to get the king's consent, he also secretly visited the nationalist Chamar Hussein, the leader of the Saudi anti-American movement. In addition, onassis invited Jamard schacht, Hitler's former German national bank, to Saudi Arabia to lobby the king. At the invitation of onassis, he persuaded the Saudi king to adopt onassis's advice and set up an Arabian oil tanker company with the participation of onassis. Schacht himself can lend them money through a German consortium, buy oil tankers in onassis and set up his own oil transport fleet.

1954 65438+1On October 20th, onassis and Saudi Arabia signed the Jeddah Agreement, which shocked the world. It stipulates that:

1. Establishment of Saudi Arabian Oil Tanker Shipping Co., Ltd.;

Second, the company will have an oil fleet with a total tonnage of 550,000 tons, all of which will fly the Saudi Arabian flag;

Third, the company will monopolize the transportation of oil mined in Saudi Arabia oil fields;

4. The shareholders of the company are the Saudi King and onassis;

5. onassis is committed to establishing a maritime academy to train 50 senior crew members for the Saudi Arabian merchant fleet every year.

The signing of Jeddah Agreement, like Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, shocked the whole world and dealt a fatal blow to Aramco, the world's largest oil company.

Major newspapers in the United States have responded to this. "Business Daily" wrote: onassis has extraordinary ambitions. He won't stop because he has a monopoly on oil transportation. His long-term goal is oil itself. The United States made a big fuss about this, and used this to put pressure on the young Saudi king, threatening to impose a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia, impose trade sanctions such as a food embargo on Saudi Arabia, and even cut off all aid to Saudi Arabia. They advised the young Saudi king not to oppose the United States ... Faced with great pressure, the young Saudi king unilaterally tore up the Jeddah agreement.

Onassis later said humorously: But I didn't expect that I became famous from now on, and entrepreneurship was really unstoppable. From 195 1 to 1955, the total tonnage of oil tankers owned by onassis increased rapidly from 1 10,000 tons before the war to 50,000 tons, which became an important force in the world oil transportation industry at that time.

At this time, what happened in Monaco in the Mediterranean attracted onassis's attention. Monaco is famous as the world gambling city Monte Carlo, and its income mainly depends on tourism and the opening of casinos. However, after World War II, these rich and powerful aristocrats were tired of playing Monte Carlo Casino to find a new paradise. In this way, this once prosperous small principality was devastated and on the verge of bankruptcy. King Prince Rainier was forced to auction the bathing company.

Onassis carefully observed the place and easily took control of the bathing company. With the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. onassis, the Principality of Monaco recovered its former prosperity. Onassis also took this opportunity to successfully enter the upper class in Europe, and was accepted by most aristocrats, thus realizing his long-cherished wish. At this time, onassis was rich and famous.

At 1966, Prince Rainier thought that he had been able to get rid of onassis and gain economic autonomy, so he directly showed his cards to onassis: either onassis got a decent compensation and left this land of right and wrong; Either wait for the head of a sovereign country to declare the nationalization of foreign enterprises and then be expelled. Finally, onassis got a considerable compensation and left Monaco.

After onassis left Monaco, he began to run his best oil transportation industry and invested heavily in oil tankers. By 1975, he had owned 45 oil tankers, of which 15 was a super tanker with a tonnage of over 200,000 tons, thus becoming the largest private merchant fleet in the world.

1975 In March, onassis, who was old and weak, died in a Parisian hospital. After his death, he owned about 400 large and small ships, with 7 million tons. As for his business on land, it is even worse to evaluate it. His daughter inherited 500 million dollars; In his will, he left his Olympic shipping company to the board of directors; Give the world's most luxurious yacht Christina to the Greek government. He created modern Greek mythology and became a world-recognized navigator.