Simon took just one day off on Saturday, resuming work the next day.
The Nasdaq breaking through the 3000-point mark would have far-reaching effects, extending beyond just February 16. The impact would ripple through the following week, month, and possibly even years to come.
Since the situation couldn't be changed, Simon planned to take full advantage of it.
Cersei Capital's hedge fund team was set to start aggressively pushing up tech stocks, with the strategy extending through the end of the year.
Due to it being an election year, Washington would go to great lengths to ensure the stability of the capital markets, prioritizing political stability. Even the Republican side wouldn't risk angering Wall Street by popping the bubble.
From now until the election results at the end of the year, the tech market would likely keep soaring. As an observer of future events, Simon was confident that no major black swan events like wars or natural disasters would occur.
Then, by 1997, it would be time to prepare for the harvesting of Asia.
In the original timeline, the Asian financial crisis also caused a significant drop in the North American stock market. However, because the Nasdaq was nowhere near its current heights of 3000 points back then, the impact was less severe. In fact, the crisis drove safe-haven capital into North America, contributing to Nasdaq's surge to 5000 points.
This time, though, luck might not be as favorable.
If all went according to plan, Simon's Westeros system would harvest Asia, then reinvest during the collapse of the tech industry, further solidifying his control over the sector.
Simon couldn't help but feel regret.
Had the original 1996 plan to suppress the Nasdaq index succeeded, the tech bubble might have weathered the storm of the upcoming financial crisis. This would have given the industry an additional two to three years to strengthen its foundation.
After wrapping up business in New York, Simon returned to the West Coast on February 19.
His 28th birthday was approaching on February 22, and while he had no intention of throwing a big party, both Jennys and many around him took it seriously and began preparations a few days in advance.
The media also picked up on Simon's upcoming birthday.
After all, it came so soon after the news of his net worth surpassing $1 trillion. His 28th birthday reminded everyone just how young this super-rich individual was.
28 years old.
At an age when many were still finishing school, Simon Westeros had reached a pinnacle of success that most could only dream of.
This kind of media attention didn't benefit Simon at all, so he quickly used his family's media relations to cool things down. Since it wasn't a hot topic, the effort quickly showed results.
Still, on February 22, the party at Dume Point Manor was quite lively. Despite attempts to scale back the event, over 300 guests attended. Even politicians from Washington, such as the Clintons, sent birthday greetings, and the Bush family included a gift.
Compared to previous years, when American elites had kept their distance from Simon, the shift in attitude was now very evident. Simon responded positively to this outreach, dedicating a full day to acknowledging the various well-wishers.
After his birthday, Simon reorganized his work schedule, intending to devote half his time in the coming months to pushing forward several key projects.
These included the Troy Project, aimed at infiltrating the U.S. political and military elite; the Solvay Program, for cultivating genius youths; SpaceX, to further space exploration; SolarCity, focused on photovoltaic technology; and, most importantly, the development of controlled nuclear fusion technology, for which he had founded a company called FusionTimes.
The key to achieving all of this lay in talent.
To gather the necessary talent, Simon utilized the full resources of the Westeros system, casting a wide net globally. Many HR departments across domestic and international companies had recently received notifications to begin recruiting specialized personnel.
With such a broad search, finding people was relatively easy.
One of those identified was Elon Musk, the future founder of SpaceX.
However, much had changed.
At 25, Musk, a South African immigrant, held dual degrees in economics and physics from the University of Pennsylvania. After finishing his studies last year, he applied to Stanford University for a PhD in materials science and applied physics. But upon arriving in Silicon Valley, Musk was captivated by the booming internet industry and dropped out to start a business.
His first venture failed.
It was a website providing an online directory for newspaper and magazine publishers and advertisers.
Musk and his partners scraped together a few tens of thousands of dollars from family and friends, worked 10-plus-hour days, and even rented server space from Egret's AWS service. Before running out of funds, they managed to secure $1 million in venture capital and launched the site, advertising it on platforms like Egret's Google search engine.
Unfortunately, the site received very little traffic.
After five months, the $1 million in venture capital was gone. With no traffic and no customers, the site was shut down.
In Simon's memory, Musk had indeed struck gold early in his career with a directory site.
However, the internet environment had since evolved.
In the original timeline, Yahoo had only just emerged, and it too was essentially an online directory. This inspired many entrepreneurs.
Now, with Egret's Google search engine gaining traction, both users and businesses could easily find the information they needed. On top of that, Egret had its own comprehensive classifieds platform, 58List.
As a result, the odds of a specialized directory website succeeding were slim. Of the dozens of such startups, maybe one would survive.
After Musk's failure, he realized that most of the venture capital his startup had raised went to paying for Egret's AWS services or advertising on its platforms. With little choice, he submitted his resume to Egret and quickly secured a job in the e-commerce division, overseen by one of Simon's trusted executives.
Musk wasn't discouraged—he saw this as a way to gain experience for future endeavors.
He had specifically chosen the e-commerce division, believing that Egret's other businesses, like AWS and Google Search, were either monopolized or too complex for a startup to enter. E-commerce, on the other hand, still held many opportunities.
To be fair, this was a sound judgment given the current stage of internet development.
Even at the peak of its dominance, Amazon never controlled more than 50% of the e-commerce market. The remaining half was divided among various smaller players. And with e-commerce still in its early stages, the future held great potential. Who would ultimately prevail remained uncertain.
But Musk's plans to lie low for a few years changed when he saw the internal job postings for SpaceX, SolarCity, and FusionTimes. These were fields that truly interested him. After all, during his time at Penn, he had pursued a physics degree alongside his economics studies, and last year, he had even planned to study materials science and applied physics at Stanford.
More importantly, it was well-known within Egret that these projects were personally overseen by Simon Westeros.
Space exploration, solar energy, and nuclear fusion—though these fields might seem out of reach, only five or six years ago, the internet seemed just as far-fetched to many. Simon Westeros had created an internet empire. Why couldn't he do the same for space exploration?
Additionally, entering the internet sector now meant missing out on the blue ocean opportunities of the past. The competition was intense, and success was becoming harder to achieve.
By comparison, space exploration and other emerging fields still offered fresh opportunities. Joining now, if these ventures succeeded, would yield substantial rewards. Simon's track record spoke for itself—just look at the countless millionaires, multimillionaires, and billionaires within Egret. Tinkobair's recent IPO had created two new billionaires, one of whom had once been Simon's maid.
This was the real American Dream.
After some deliberation, Musk applied for a position at SpaceX, following his intuition. He quickly received a response, passed two rounds of initial interviews, and was soon invited to an interview personally led by Simon Westeros.
By March 3rd, a Sunday.
The interview took place in Playa Vista, just south of Los Angeles and not far from LAX.
This area was already considered the outskirts of LA.
However, those familiar with aerospace history knew that this was once the site of the legendary industrialist Howard Hughes' aircraft factories.
A total of 50 candidates were participating in the interview, all selected from various fields as top talents.
Per Simon's requirements, all candidates were under the age of 35, most were single, and more than half held PhDs. All had the stamina to work over 10 hours a day.
Even the timing of the interview was deliberate.
Sunday.
And it began at 8 a.m.
A traditional day of rest. If anyone had a problem with that, they weren't suited for the job.
Although Musk was personally chosen by Simon, he received no special treatment in this interview. Even though his hiring was essentially a foregone conclusion, Simon had no intention of immediately placing the 25-year-old in a high-ranking position. Rushing things wouldn't help anyone.
Simon had arrived early.
All candidates showed up on time, gathering in a recently renovated, studio-like space, reminiscent of a movie set.
The studio was filled with workstations and a wide array of industrial equipment, both cutting-edge and common. Anyone with a penchant for hands-on work could immediately recognize that many of these tools were designed specifically for manufacturing aerospace components.
Once everyone had gathered, Simon clapped his hands to get their attention. He glanced over the group and said, "I'm sure you've all noticed the equipment around you. This interview will be different from what you might expect. My time is limited, so
I won't be having one-on-one conversations with each of you. Instead, let me address the things you care about most."
"You should all be aware of the field SpaceX is involved in. My promise to you is this: if you're an idealist who wants to see humanity reach space and embrace the future, congratulations—this is the platform for you. If you're a realist who wants to leverage your skills to earn significant rewards and live a privileged life, SpaceX is also the right place for you."
"Some of you may doubt the latter. After all, the conventional wisdom is that aerospace has never been a highly profitable industry. But the truth is, the global demand for commercial satellite launches is growing, as everyone wants to have their own satellites in orbit. SpaceX's ultimate goal is to conquer space, but in my view, nothing lasts if it's built purely on ideals. So, the first step for SpaceX is to become the world's largest private commercial launch provider."
"My advisory team estimates that within the next decade, the commercial space market will be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. If SpaceX captures even one-third of that market and goes public, its valuation will exceed $100 billion. As the company's founder, I will give away the majority of my shares as rewards to you. Many of you will end up like the founding teams at Egret or Tinkobair, owning millions, if not billions, in assets."
Simon paused for a moment to let the group absorb this, then continued, "However, before that happens, you need to prove yourselves in order to secure this job. Even if you join SpaceX, you won't immediately receive large paychecks, and the work will be extremely demanding. I need you to understand that SpaceX is not a billionaire's toy. I'll provide everything you need—both in your personal and professional lives—so that you can work without distractions. But this job comes with very, very, very strict requirements. If you can't handle that, I suggest you leave now. Go to NASA, Boeing, or Lockheed and find a comfortable nine-to-five job to live out your days."
After this, some of the candidates exchanged uncertain glances.
Simon waited a moment. When no one left, he clapped his hands again. "Good. Now, let's get started. You see the equipment around you? And over there, the materials? I want you to form teams of three to five and use this equipment and these materials to create specific rocket components. You have 24 hours—yes, a full day. That means you'll be working through the night, not just today. By 8 a.m. tomorrow, I'll be back, along with a team from NASA to evaluate your work. Everything will be assessed according to NASA's standards. So remember, I'm looking for real, usable rocket components, not kindergarten science projects."
Simon motioned to A-Girl standing beside him, and Alison opened the briefcase she'd been carrying, placing a thick stack of folders on a nearby workbench equipped with a lathe. She added, "You can form your own teams and select a task from this stack. Each team can only choose one task, and once chosen, you can't switch."
Simon added, "If any of you finish early, you're welcome to help another team, and yes, that will earn you bonus points. Staff on-site will keep track of everything. But let me warn you, these tasks are very challenging, and 24 hours may not be enough if you're not up to the task."
After giving a few final instructions, and seeing the candidates efficiently organizing into teams and choosing tasks, Simon left with A-Girl and the rest of his entourage.
Outside the studio.
As Simon got into his car, he remembered something and asked A-Girl, "I recall instructing that their meals should be arranged in advance. Is everything set?"
A-Girl replied, "The chef team from Malibu Studios will handle it personally. Each meal has a $500 budget per person."
Without including alcohol, $500 was already the standard for dining at most of Los Angeles' top restaurants.
Satisfied, Simon nodded, then chuckled. "Contact Elite's LA branch and bring in some models to temporarily act as waitstaff. Make sure they're beautiful. After all, nothing motivates men more than the sight of attractive women."
The interview tasks he had assigned were incredibly difficult, and in Simon's mind, if half the candidates managed to complete them by morning, that would be an impressive result. Though all 50 participants were elite in their fields, Simon only planned to hire one-fifth of them. The rest would be cut.
Without faith or opposition, it's hard to keep people motivated to work diligently.
That's why Simon had no qualms about adding a touch of luxury to make these tech geeks experience the life of the elite. Of course, if they wanted to truly live that life, they'd have to work hard and keep climbing.
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