Truth be told, I thought carefully before making the decision. It was not easy for me. Therefore, I turned to my assistant for administrative, financial and algorithmic affairs, and asked him to present the issue to the members of the committee. After deliberations, studies, and readings, we unanimously decided that the best and most reasonable solution (in particular) is to abandon proceeding with the project competing with the South African, Musk… Elon Musk.
According to his biographer, Walter Isaacson, the value of his company became $175 billion, and Tesla’s $800 billion. Also a dollar. Before that, I had thought about competing with Carlos Slim, considering that his grandfather’s house in his town is not far from my grandfather’s house in his village, more than 5 kilometers at most. Both of them, his grandfather and grandfather, immigrated to Mexico. Both of them, his grandfather and my grandfather, worked in selling “hardware” on the back of a horse. His grandfather decided to stay, and my grandfather left Mexico and went to work in Michigan. Why, grandfather, was this, why? It reminded me, may God have mercy on you, of the poem “From Eyes” by the late Mahmoud Al-Sharif on the same (long) sea, in which he said:
Oh you who crushes my heart… Bazzaza… Why the abandonment? And why?
My grandfather went to Michigan to help revive the automobile industry, and he worked on the assembly line at Buick. But he returned to the farm before he achieved his dream, while Carlos’s grandfather, whose employees today number about 450,000, held out a little more, or a little less. Sir, congratulations. I, thank God, do not have to “lift” the burden of one employee. I don’t care about staying among the top ten. One of the world’s richest people. Not even twenty. So why this? Why? (On the long sea).
Then why would someone want to become another Elon? A nervous man, his two ex-wives say he has no manners, and whenever he gets angry, he hurls insults and obscenities at others. He is a complex man who never forgets that his friends at school used to bully him and beat him “until his face was no longer recognizable,” as his brother says.
Walter Isaacson has written many biographies of the greats, ancients like Simón Bolívar, and moderns like Henry Kissinger. Among his group are two of Arab origin, Steve Jobs from Homs, and Carlos Slim from Jezzine. The two amassed unimaginable wealth from something called, for short, “Telkom.” The first was an inventor in North America, and the second was a merchant in Central America.
Since Forbes magazine began issuing a list of the ten richest people in the world, I have avoided delving into it and left it to some of my friends, such as Presidents Saad Hariri and Najib Mikati. Our proverb says, as long as your friend is fine, you are fine. Prime Minister Hariri, or Taha Mikati (the brother), never once let me down in helping someone in need. Wealth has two parts: one that means its owner alone, and one that means what is spent from it in righteousness and benevolence. All I have in this race are expressions of gratitude in this corner. President Nabih Berri is not on Forbes’ list, but he is number one on my list.
I had started by saying that the value of my two companies: “Tesla” is about 175 billion, and 800 billion each. I forgot to mention that the head of the administrative committee advised me that if you insist on competing, just try the first one.
2024-02-05 16:21:10
#race