The popularity of Toy Story continued from Thanksgiving straight through the Christmas season.
Kids brought Buzz and Woody toys to school, bragging that their parents had bought them, and enviously praised James—the major Pixar shareholder—who had versions autographed by the actors, making him smile warmly.
“Yeah. Buy lots and lots—that’ll drive up Pixar’s stock price. You’re doing great.”
Feeling the hype of Toy Story firsthand while attending school, winter break arrived in no time.
“Oppa, did you get first in the whole school again this time?”
“You did well this time too, right?”
James naturally recorded the top grades in school, and talk of grade-skipping had started among the teachers.
Unlike her lively personality, his younger sister had inherited Dad’s brains and, fully adapting to English unlike last year, brought home high scores.
“Hurry and get ready. We’ll be late for the plane.”
“Are we taking the Walmart private jet again?”
“That’s what I heard. Private jets are great and all, but now regular flights feel uncomfortable—that’s the real problem.”
Mom got James and Jaeeun ready and headed to the airport where the private jet bound for Arkansas waited.
Dad had to work, so he planned to take vacation on Christmas Day itself and fly commercial.
“Haha. Come on in. You’ve grown a lot in just half a year.”
“Grandpa Sam!”
Once again, Sam Walton arrived in his old pickup truck and waited at the airport.
Jaeeun ran over and hugged Sam Walton, who smiled grandfatherly and stroked the head of the Korean-style affection bundle that was Jaeeun.
“Thank you again for inviting us.”
“Hee-jung, do you eat preservatives? You don’t age at all. This time, you have to tell me your skin-care secret before you leave.”
“Hoho. You really know how to give nice compliments.”
Mom had grown much closer to the Walton family from spending every break with them.
Heading to Sam’s house, several family members had already arrived, and everyone warmly welcomed James, Jaeeun, and Mom.
“James, I heard you set incredible records at the summer camp last time. The kids told me all about you.”
“They said Jenny dances even better than the Mickey Mouse Club kids—I remembered how she danced with the children last Christmas.”
Rumors of the outstanding Asian siblings from the Walmart summer camp had spread across America through the participating kids and instructors.
James didn’t really keep in touch with the children, but he occasionally got calls from Brian Gosling, and since Gosling was staying at Austin Timberlake’s house, he exchanged greetings with Austin a few times.
Unlike her brother, the extremely sociable younger sister exchanged phone calls and letters with dozens of kids, staying in frequent contact with Britney Shakespeare and Christina Aguilera.
Not long ago, she bragged about attending the Toy Story preview, making the two future stars jealous.
Starting with summer camp stories, they caught up on what everyone had been doing, and as more Walton family members kept arriving, a lively year-end atmosphere built up.
“Is the management program running without issues?”
“The executives and managers love it, but the developers say errors pop up during updates.”
“I’ll go check it out.”
“Sure. Try to join as many family events as possible this time—just do a quick check.”
Jim Wharton, who had come looking for James, said that thanks to the program made last year, computer usage among executives and managers had skyrocketed.
The day after arriving in Bentonville, Arkansas, James visited Walmart headquarters, greeted developers he hadn’t seen in a year, and helped with simple updates.
“I saw it last year, but I still can’t get used to it.”
“Honestly, James codes better than us and structures the program to be user-friendly.”
“He was such a little kid last year, but he’s grown a lot in just one year.”
James fixed program errors with Walmart’s IT team and discussed the hot topic of Netscape and various online businesses.
“So, to make real money, you have to go to Silicon Valley after all?”
“Walmart pays well too, but it’s true that now’s a great time to start a business. Netscape made billionaires in less than a year.”
The heat of the dot-com bubble was starting even in far-off Bentonville, Arkansas, and James could tell some of them would ride the bubble and start companies.
After providing after-service to Walmart, James returned to Sam Walton’s house and mingled appropriately with the family.
Kids who had kept a slight distance last year now approached friendly—impressed by his summer camp performance—and having attended American school for over a year, James was familiar enough with teen culture to fit in easily.
“James, do you have a girlfriend?”
“No, I don’t. Why?”
“I figured someone popular like you would definitely have one.”
Puberty had arrived, and the kids were starting to notice the opposite sex; some even had boyfriends or girlfriends.
James had received a few confessions but said he wasn’t thinking about dating yet, and Dorothy—who had been eavesdropping with perked ears from the corner—looked relieved, her serious face brightening.
While hanging out with the kids, James found a good moment to confide his concerns to Sam Walton.
“You want to hire an accountant because of taxes?”
“And I’m planning more investments here and there—I’d like help setting up an investment corporation.”
“Well, you did take a big chunk from Walmart early this year, so tax prep makes sense.”
Sam Walton was thinking of the $25 million paid by Walmart, but James had nearly multiplied it tenfold in a year and already held stakes in several companies from investments.
He preferred not to reveal this normally, but since Sam Walton was already a world-famous billionaire, it seemed fine to tell him—and he might even get help.
“Actually, I invested in a few companies over time, and when they went public, my assets ballooned. I have high ownership percentages, but since my name appeared during the IPOs, I think I need an investment company to hide my identity.”
“Oh! Investing at such a young age. Impressive. So which companies, and how much did you make?”
Sam Walton assumed James had invested modestly in decent companies and made a little pocket money.
“I own 30% of a web browser company called Netscape that went public this year, and I also hold shares in Pixar, the company that made the animated film Toy Story. With both successfully listing, my assets increased by about $200 million.”
A question mark appeared on Sam Walton’s face as he listened with a grandfatherly smile.
“Did you just say $200 million?”
“Yes. That’s just from those two companies—adding cash on hand and investments in others, it’s around $250 million total. I’m holding some cash considering taxes, but I figured I should prepare in advance.”
“Hmm! This far exceeds the scale I imagined. I knew you weren’t an ordinary kid, but I didn’t expect this.”
The frugal Sam Walton naturally knew many ways to legally reduce—not evade—taxes.
Pondering how to outsmart the IRS, he said he was retired and unfamiliar with the latest techniques, so he’d call in a specialist.
“Hello? It’s Sam from Arkansas. What are you up to?”
“Spending the holidays with family? Perfect. Spend this break in Bentonville.”
“Don’t worry about that—I’ll send a private jet. Bring the whole family. Christmas gifts? Just pick whatever you want from Walmart.”
“Are you refusing a request from an old man with not many days left? I didn’t think you were like that—making money has changed you. Anyway, I’ll send the plane.”
From what James overheard, it sounded like a very influential person.
It bothered him a little that Sam seemed to be forcing someone who didn’t want to come to Arkansas, but someone of Sam Walton’s stature could do as he pleased.
“He lives in an even more rural place than Bentonville yet pretends to resist. He’ll love it here.”
“Who did you call?”
“He’ll arrive tomorrow—I’ll introduce you then.”
The next day, ten new family members joined the already bustling house full of dozens.
“Spending time with family—did you really have to call me like this?”
“An old man whose body isn’t what it used to be just wants to feel a big family one last time. Wouldn’t our spacious house—where the kids love it—be better than always spending year-end in that small house in rural Omaha?”
The invited middle-aged white man grumbled at Sam Walton but warmly greeted his family.
James—the very reason for the invitation—froze upon seeing the man.
Holy crap. It’s Warren Buffett!
The person Sam Walton invited was Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway—who, after a turbulent 1980s, ranked second on Forbes’ world’s richest list in 1990 with $4.2 billion, then became the world’s richest in 1993 with $15.2 billion total assets.
This year he had yielded first place to Microsoft’s William Gates, who had been second, but he would reclaim the throne from Gates and hold it for thirteen years until 2008.
Japanese tycoons dominated the world’s richest spot for a while, and Warren Buffett rising to take it became big news.
In the future, American entrepreneurs would monopolize the richest rankings, but in the 1980s, soaring Japanese stock and real estate prices produced super-rich individuals; in 1987, Seibu Group chairman Yoshiaki Tsutsumi took the top spot.
Tsutsumi, a real estate and railway tycoon owning 27 golf courses, 25 ski resorts, 56 hotels, several railway companies, and a professional baseball team, was famous for extreme frugality.
He briefly yielded first place to another real estate tycoon, Taikichiro Mori, in 1991 and 1992, but held the top spot for a total of six years.
But in 2005, he received a prison sentence for financial statement fraud and insider trading, completely dropping off the billionaire list.
Lost in recent richest rankings thoughts, Warren Buffett approached.
“You’re the James old Sam mentioned. Younger than I thought, but I started managing money myself at your age too. Looking at your face, you seem like someone who’ll handle money well.”
Warren Buffett said that after meeting so many rich people, he could roughly tell who would make a lot of money just by their face.
“This kid sold us a program last year, took $25 million, and ballooned it tenfold in one year.”
“It’s possible if done well, but never easy. So you want to hide your name from IPOs and set up a private investment corporation to reduce taxes?”
“That’s part of it, but I’ve invested in quite a few companies, so the portfolio is getting complicated. I plan to keep taking stakes in more companies going forward, and managing it all is becoming difficult.”