Gossiping 2

A really successful businessman…

• Sunday afternoon, in Radu Beller area, Bucharest. The coffee places are half full, thus lots of parking lots are available. A young guy leaves driving his Maybach (I guess he wanted to feel more secure, this is why he bought a 600.000 euro car – hopefully not by leasing…) and now there are three available parking places. Two seconds after, a big Mercedes illegally turns left and now it is in front of the three parking plots. After mature thought (I guess), the driver chooses to reject all three and to park his car exactly where is the line of pedestrians, blocking it. He also makes sure that half of the car will be on the pavement and that the rest of the cars will not be able to pass very easily. This brave gentleman steps down. He has the style of the perfect, successful businessman. A characteristic haircut, expensive sunglasses and casual clothes, which are very discreet (this means that the size of the brand is not covering half of the t-shirt, it’s just 10 centimeters long). He enters in the coffee shop, walking slowly and checking around, if there are any women and if they are looking at him. He chooses the seat next to the window, so as to have guaranteed maximum visibility. Then he searches in the place and finds something to read. As a serious businessman, I guess he wants to be informed for the world economic credit crunch, but for the beginning he will start with something lighter, “Libertatea” and “Click” newspapers. There he will be able to spot the next “difficult to get” ladies that he will target to. He stops reading for a while. Probably his wise mind is thinking now, with 1.000.000 turns per second. He looks around patrolling the area, no woman is looking at him. He keeps thinking, I guess the answer to a critical question like “how much should be the budget for this one?” or “don’t tell me I’ll have to buy a car to this one too, so as to have her”. He orders the most fashionable coffee available and returns to his thoughts (he doesn’t like to drink it, but it’s trendy). The newspaper’s pages are big, if they weren’t, for sure he would have noticed the disabled lady who was trying for five minutes to enter on the pavement with her wheel chair. But she should not worry. If she will not make it until he will go, he will give her 100 – 200 ron and for sure she will be happy, she should know he is generous. (If any of you, ever, watch me behaving like this guy, PLEASE COME AND THROW WATER ON MY FACE, I will owe you a big favour).

“The best offers of the market” (or the majority of the people is still sleeping…)

• “MISTER ILIAS, I have for you the best offers of the market”. “Good, it is the first time I hear this, let me see what you got”. “This is a property in the centre of Bucharest (he says all the details) and I have it in the price of 6,5 million euro, owner’s price always”. “But the real one is not even half”. “It is not my fault, mister, this is what the owner wants”. “Ok, I understand his problem. But how can I propose to my clients a price like this, I don’t have stupid investors, I was never lucky and intelligent enough to find”. “This is the price and the owner said that if he will not find anyone to buy, he will keep it until he will find, in worst case scenario he will give it to his children when he dies”. “Good. In this case transmit to him that if he will die before me, I will be present at the funeral, I can even make a speech”. “You know, I have something else very good. Popesti Leordeni, which means Bucharest. A land where you can build Ground Floor plus 7 floors and a price of ONLY 200 euro / sq.m.”. “But why someone to buy there with this price now?”. “Because he can build Ground Floor plus seven floors”. “And who will go to live there, in this period?” “I don’t know, many other blocks were raised in the area, plus there are people around who ask for 250 – 300 euro / sq.m., so it is a real bargain”. “The developers you mention… did they also buy with 200? Or the bought with… 2 and now the stupid foreigners should come and pay 200, so as to make the owner multi millionaire?” “You know, the price can be slightly negotiable”. “Good, in this case we can offer 5% more from the biggest offer that the owner has”. “But now he doesn’t have any”. “Exactly. When and if he will ever have, we will pay 5% more”. “But like this we will not make any deal”. “You mean that like this we can not trick any investor I represent? I agree with you, I never did this and especially now I have no reason to start doing this”. “You are not serious, you will never do business in Romania”. “In all our previous meetings, you were saying so many compliments to me. Now, you realized that I am not serious. You are right. And thank God you found out now, better late than never”. (Too bad for these people, they still don’t realize in what trouble they have entered into, this is why they will suffer more…)

The 5 million euro villa (with the rent of 3.000 euro / month)

• “Ilia, you see this villa across the street?” “Yes, ofcourse I see it, even my age doesn’t help, I can still look at 20 meters distance. But I see it empty, what happened?” “It was rented by a friend of mine, soon he will enter in it”. “This was a restaurant, I had met one of the owners too in the past and he was telling me how much money he has and that he has the restaurant mainly for him and his wife to eat lunch”. “That’s old. He lost quite a lot of money and now he was almost begging my friend to rent it, for 3.000 euro per month”. “Impossible, he was telling me that he had an offer of 5 million last year, as the location is super central, in an area with very high added value”. “Did you believe him?” “No, but you know… some hundreds of sq.m., here… they cost something. As we mention the case, after few months I remember that they were in trouble with money…” “and now you see the result”. (I can not say I feel pity for this kind of people. I am just sorry for their families, as they will suffer due to the choices of an arrogant brainless guy – and this breed in Romania is not under extinction, you can find plenty)

“Mister Ilias, I will resign, I can not work after 18.00, my boyfriend doesn’t let me”

• A big (huge) salary. An excellent environment. A clear explanation for what she was supposed to do. A potential to start a new business together, in which she would be the director and in three years partner. All conveniences for whatever she needed. No, they were not enough, as I had the “ridiculous” demand to ask her to finish her tasks before leaving, to be responsible for what she is doing, not to forget critical papers of our company anywhere in the office and not to tell her boyfriend to come to pick her up every day at 17.30, because he didn’t like to wait. She punished me exactly as I deserved, she agreed with my brother that she would stay until the end of October and to me she announced that she will stop “in three days maximum’. It is not needed only to be a good person, but also it is important for someone to behave like a professional and not like a diva. (If I ask all the business people I know, they will tell me the same stories, so I am not alone… is it a relief? Nope)