#BoW - My happiest memory or how I wanted to make a million US dollars

One of them (in a blue baseball cap) is the same director of the plant.

Once in these "fabulous times", I, like Ostap Ibrahimovich, almost became a millionaire, and a real one. And not in rubles, even for those times, but in dollars. And it was like this. At one of the factories, in the era of the “golden period” of mutual settlements that came to our country in time, promissory notes of power engineers from RAO UES of Russia appeared to carry out payments for manufactured products. These promissory notes were then extremely illiquid and gave nothing for them - no more than 39% -41%. This was used by many who knew how to count quickly and on the run, and to trade in this crazy world of the arrived and "so desired" market economy with its predatory basis, destroying the minds of people with an unbalanced psyche! That's how it happened to me! I learned about these deposits of "especially valuable" securities and in my head, how a great schemer immediately conceived a plan to seize this "useless" paper! Knowing in advance that the director of the plant would not be able to attach these bills anyway, I told him my "crazy plan" to save the plant and how to earn us a million greens each and become the happiest in this ruthless world filled with injustice and hypocrisy.

But then I still earned my millions, but in a different place...

The director, as I understand it, my thought about the "golden rain" hit the brain, so much so that he immediately decided not to give me these "miracle pieces of paper", answering me in a chilling voice: "Something I don't really believe in everything these exchanges, changes ?! " And he added, looking out the window of the factory office, from which the dullness of the coming day began to fall on us: “You are ... come on, that's what. Think about how many percent the dollar can jump? Then come to me! " His words rang out in my ears, no worse than a bell! And then the dollar was worth nothing at all - some 6,000 rubles. The bar between the ruble and the dollar swam in a plus, then in a minus, but so ... not much. And ahead of us was such a collapse of the ruble, and of the entire Russian economy, that we all could not have imagined that the dollar would break the bar up to 24,000 rubles. But it had to happen ahead, and while I was building a super-duper plan, how to break this "jackpot" for me?

And then in 1997 I bought my first sports car - a Mustang...

The bills I wanted at the plant were worth over 11 billion! This is the amount that haunted me. In the end, I found a way to make money! An old acquaintance of mine, a leading specialist, worked in one of the commercial banks, and he then agreed with the banker about the purchase of the promissory notes I offered, and in terms of dollars. And the discount was really small! With all our "financial operation" it turned out like this: we earned so much that one part was completely returned to the plant (and in money), and the other two parts we successfully and cheerfully scattered into our pockets. Eh, the lights of Rio de Janeiro were already nearby! But there was a "rhesus" incident, the director of the plant rested, and did not want to "put into circulation" the promissory notes. The bummer crept up unnoticed when you are not expecting it at all! So the fabulous dream of a failed millionaire began to die, even without being born. Although the glitter of the "golden rain" was visible over the horizon! Apparently the wind of change dispersed the gold-bearing cloud? Then I offered to put into business at least half of that amount. The answer was again - no! Two weeks later, talking with him about the sale of products, I again returned to the issue of bills. I showed him the full deal from the amount of 1 billion or at least 500 million. The director took my calculation, twisted it for a long time, thinking, and again said his own - no.

And then my own small river boat, so that you can fish...

I understood that he was especially worried about the current quotes at commercial banks, where such a leapfrog was taking place that one could go crazy without leaving the bank. One could buy currency for 5900 rubles, and after driving to the center of Chelyabinsk, sell dollars for 6200 rubles, or even more. Which, in fact, I did in the morning quite often. Having in my asset a good amount of money at that time, I managed to successfully “earn” with this amount, albeit “wooden” rubles, but in a pleasant amount during the dawn morning! Primitive? Yes, I agree! But many of my acquaintances also managed to "spin" on the "cabbage", throwing their honestly acquired tugriks into the "greenery". Once, having left for work and listening to the radio in the car, I wondered where it would be better for me to dash today in order to "chop a crust" for myself? I heard that there were such morning quotes in the Sintez bank (there was such a thing in the past). Why morning? Yes, because by lunchtime they had already changed, just like the prices in stores, where sellers had to rewrite the price tags for goods several times a day.

And in April of the same year I bought a Mitsubishi Pajero jeep...

So on the topic. Turning to the "Severok" (the so-called sleeping area, which has become unexpectedly developing in trade), I sprayed in the direction of the bank. Having bought foreign banknotes with a portrait of Franklin, I immediately returned to the city center, where the Exchange was working at that time. Buying currency from them was always more expensive than from banks - this is what I used until this very Exchange "burst"! My morning wages were pretty good - at the beginning of the working day I managed to earn (in just half an hour) my wages for a month of "unbearable work" at the factory. Was it good or bad - the question? But what was pleasant was for sure! And in the end, about millions. As we know, the collapse of the ruble and, accordingly, the prices of goods, happened, as always, "unexpectedly" and capaciously! And after my visit to the director's office and showing the “comrade” the price of the dollar, he sat with an amazed face for a while, looking at the same window with unwashed glass (they were washed, apparently, at the dawn of Soviet power ...). Outside the window, the factory hummed as usual, and the workers who came to work, because there was nothing to do anyway, did not even know that both they and our whole country were now at one moment below the city sewer. Although it was easier for them to live - they did not know the "truth" about the mediocre lost millions!

Although it didn't work out with a million dollars that year...

Today the voice of the director seemed to me somehow quiet and tragic (but why ...). Fumbling in his hands some "very important", but really - absolutely unnecessary document to anyone in this atmosphere of lost capital, he uttered a historical phrase that I still hear, after many years: "Well, what can I answer on this about? We have lost a huge jackpot! It was bad that you persuaded me! " I laughed at his words about the fact that we had lost it, and then I also said: “To be honest, I am more used to persuading women! Here we have a special case. And so would you and I now sit and share our millions? This is a happy moment in our life - there is no money and no problems! " And looking at each other - we both laughed, relieving the situation and not at all regretting the lost millions, which we never saw! And the promissory notes in the future and "went away" in paper, especially not bringing income even for production. The discount on them was then even "steeper", that's why they turned into a real pile of paper! What can I say - there was a time of great changes during these years.

This is my happiest memory or how I wanted to make a million US dollars