Chapter 16 Chapter 16 Soros' Voice

Fame means constant recognition, it means constant calls from the media, it means the end of personal joy.Fame can also mean the death of one's investing career. Section 1 Media Concepts Early in his career, George Soros believed that being famous was not a good thing, and could even destroy him.Fame means constant recognition, constant calls from the media, and the end of personal joy.Fame can also mean the death of one's investing career. No wonder, then, that on Wall Street, he avoided the limelight. According to James Grant, editor-in-chief of New York's "Grant Profit Observer" magazine, Soros is not alone in the shadows, and neither are most people in the Wall Street area.The prevailing opinion on Wall Street is that "like mushrooms, maybe wealth is only good in the dark." People on Wall Street don't want to explain how they make money in the "New York Times" one day. They don't want the world to know how much money they have. money, because they know: "Someday, as the political winds turn, respect turns to envy, and people will question you all day long. "

In the early days, it was also easy to avoid the media.Reporting on business events and people in the business world has little appeal for journalists.These business figures may be brilliant businessmen in the boardroom and titans on Wall Street, but the media sees them as lacking in personality, unattractive, uncontroversial, and uninteresting.It wasn't until 1984, when the autobiography of the controversial auto tycoon Lee Wenkka was published, that most readers got a glimpse of his business career, that for the first time business figures became an interesting group.On the heels of Iacocca's book came intense media scrutiny of business and its leaders.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Soros seemed uninterested in the propaganda of the press.He was also largely ignored by the press.Occasionally, in 1975, The Wall Street Journal ran a story briefly describing his career on the front page.However, such an opportunity for him to express himself and establish a public image to express himself, Soros shyly declined. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he was invited by a TV station to participate in a series of public seminars for stock analysis.Except for a few fixed occasions.Soros refused to reveal more information. For friends of Soros, this silence around investors does not come from Soros, but from Wall Street.Some believe that the investment group, out of envy of his brilliance, rarely mentions him to reporters, so that, according to his friends, the business press knows next to nothing about Soros.The defect of this state is that when Soros really receives the attention of the media, the public opinion is completely in favor of him.

Although Soros had been written about before, it was only in June 1981, when Soros was featured on the cover of Institutional Investor magazine, that he received widespread public attention. The articles introducing him in the magazine were full of hyperbole and grandstanding, calling Soros "the world's greatest broker".This sentence casts a halo in people's minds.In the reader's mind, Soros is an enigma. "Whether it is his personality or his personal achievements, what Soros brings to people is mystery. Except for his occasional public discussion on the radio, in Wall Street or in the securities and financial circles, most people rarely know about this reclusive company. Manager, let alone how many people know about his experience."

"His experience adds to the mystery, which is that no one knows exactly where Soros invests, or how long he will continue to engage in an investment activity. As a manager of an overseas investment company, Securities and Exchange The Commission did not ask for registration. He avoided contact with Wall Street professionals. Those who knew him in business confessed that they had never been very closely associated with this man. As for reputation, he was generally believed to be indifferent to it. , he lived happily. There is no doubt that the ISI report was positive, but what happened next made Soros wonder if the press attention was worth it.In the months following the report, Soros suffered enormously, the only loss-making year of his business career. In 1982, before the hiring of James Marquette.Soros told him very clearly about his whole experience of "walking out of the securities market", and it was not a good feeling at that time.

"For George, this (the publicity in the press followed by a reversal in the stock market) was almost causal," said Marquez. Man sits on previous laurels to watch, not participate. He thinks he has shared... what he knows and how to invest with others through the news media and pay attention to what he can get out of it. More than that. In the process In the process, he lost some long-term investors and friends, so he entered a very secretive phase. In 1983 and 1984, as Soros' right-hand man, Marquis went through this "secret phase". During that time, journalists often called the Quantum Foundation to find out how the company was doing, or how Soros and Marquiz thought a piece of news might affect Wall Street.When Marquis joined the foundation, Soros explicitly told him not to contact the press. "The last time I had contact with the press was on New Year's Day 1983, the day I went to work with George Soros," said Marquez.

Marquis was a friendly guy, and despite Soros' warnings, he enjoyed talking to reporters and answering their calls.According to Marquis, it is very important to have a certain influence in front of the public.He made it clear to journalists that coverage of his speech would only be from a covert location. "I say to the reporters: I tell you what I know, or think I know, but in no way attribution." Neither he nor the Quantum Foundation can be cited, that's his rule. Soros may have sensed what Marquis was talking to the reporters, but he never asked.At times, Marquis was sure that Soros knew he was the source of a certain message. "He used to tell me in some way that I was the backstage of something, and he'd say, 'Gee, this article sounds like you wrote it. When one day, I accept something from him, the next , may appear in newspapers and magazines."

When Alan Raphael entered the Soros Foundation in 1984, he was also told not to associate with the press, and he complied with this discipline. "We at the Soros Foundation are considered secretive, and I think that's fine. Usually, our tactics are spot on. It's only at the end of the day that you let people know what you're doing." why? "Because people are going to run first. If you're running a global company, then you don't want people to catch up to you very easily. If people know what you're doing and what you want to buy, they're going to go ahead of you. Buy it, it'll just mess up your plans."

Soros' clients are all abroad.And they're all "very secret," according to Raphael, clients who "don't want to see their names in the press." Therefore, in the early and mid-1980s, Soros's press policy was exclusionary, he had no spokesperson, and he did not hold press conferences. "What we need is to come quietly and go quietly," Raphael said. In September 1987, Soros was interviewed by "Happiness" magazine, and this interview was the only exception.But it had serious consequences.The magazine's cover was headlined "Are Stocks Too High? Soros Predicted No Reversal in U.S. Stock Markets, and Neither in Japan." Shortly thereafter, Wall Street plummeted.

"It's like your appearance on the cover of Sports Illustrated," Raphael said. "Your team likes to win the World Cup and then disappear quickly. Let's have a little joke: appear on the cover of the magazine and cause a lot of trouble." good consequences." Chapter Two In order to achieve some of his other goals, notably empowering public groups in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, Soros could not remain completely secretive because he wanted to be respected.He wants the cynics to see him as a serious thinker.He knows that if he has a better public image and speaks for the public good, it will do him a favor for his philanthropy in Eastern Europe.

He seemed to be playing a tug-of-war with himself.On the one hand, from the perspective of investment, we must pull ourselves into secrecy; on the other hand, from the perspective of philanthropy, we must pull ourselves into the open.The following passage of his is the most vivid description of this stretching force: "Self-exposure is extremely destructive, but a shortcoming of my character, which I have not fully understood, is the eagerness to expose myself. ·His feedback theory has brought him to the top of the investment market, and now—1987—he is ready to let the public know himself better. He uses his most powerful resource, his mind. Because he is sure: The time is ripe to find a place for oneself in the mind of the world. This place has been denied in the past, so what now? A long time ago, he wanted to publish a book and make a contribution to human thought.But he knew he had to make his thoughts clearer to the public. "People don't fully understand me," he said at one point, "because I'm not good at expressing these complicated ideas, and they're complicated. For him, however, publishing a philosophy book remained an elusive dream.He might be able to publish a book explaining his financial theories.However, before committing to writing, he hesitated.He worries that publishing his financial theories for public scrutiny might seem like braggadocio.What would happen to philanthropy if, after the book was published, he suffered an even more dire stock market reversal?What will the public say then?What would they think of his financial theory? Regardless, he decided to devote himself to writing. Finally, the draft of the book "The Touch of Stone" was roughly completed.He began preparations for its public publication.As early as 1969, he showed some chapters of this book to colleagues.Some absorbed the ideas without commenting on them, some found them very difficult to understand, and very few made specific comments.They knew that Soros liked to hear praise for his work, not criticism. The person who saw the earliest editions of the book—actually some loose manuscripts—was Jimmy Marchuez. "He showed me these notes, which were very difficult, very difficult. For many people, it was the best sleeping pill," said James Grant, editor-in-chief of the New York-based magazine The Observer of Rates of Giving , one of the sharpest minds in the Wall Street area, he had a very low evaluation of "The Touch of Stone": "I tried to read (this book), but after reading it, I was still empty-handed, or my mind was blank. From this I find Not a particularly clear explanation. Another person who has seen some of the original chapters is Alain Raphael. "This book is for graduate students, not general reading. We had to read every part of every chapter the way he did. Frankly, it's not that stimulating. From the reader's side, it's not telling you how to do it at ten." Makes a lot of money in days. He jumps back and forth so much he won't let anyone revise the book, which I think is a mistake. Simon Schuster Publishing wants a professional editor to rewrite the book , to bring it up to publication level, but Soros turned it down. It is also not entirely true that the manuscript lacks a reviser.Borong Wen, a longtime friend of Soros and an American investment strategist in the Morgan Stanley area, has made significant revisions to this book. "He wrote the draft, and then I made suggestions for the rewrite. And I did a lot of revising and polishing... Some people said the book was still unreadable, and I said to them: you should look at what was before look." At first, Soros wanted to title the book Boom and Bust, but Bo Rongwen told him not to use that title. "That's already a cliché. The title seems to demand that the book include everything. Soros was very concerned that readers would misunderstand the intent of the book.He published this book, not to teach people on Wall Street how to make more money.The reader may be looking for investment secrets on every page of the book; however, he is not trying to help others make money.He writes with one purpose: to introduce his readers to his theory of finance, which is part of a whole series of theories about how the organic world works.He said he was using his "practical experience in the securities markets to provide a way of studying historical processes in general, and modern historical movements in particular." The first thing to realize is that for the public to be interested in his views, Soros must make himself understandable.He must express his theory in a way that others can understand; he must also clearly explain how, as an investor, he uses his theory to make decisions. If he can do this, he may be able to open a window into the hearts of others, and the respect he has longed for will follow.If he can't do that, he'll just confuse people and inevitably disappoint most or all of those who were anxiously waiting.However, critics believe that the book has a serious problem: in the financial world, it has not earned Soros a high reputation. the reason is simple. Soros was convinced that his extraordinary financial talents were becoming less and less commensurate with his existing public reputation, and that he might continue to live in the shadows.He is also convinced that the publication of "Dianshichengquan" may improve his reputation, and he does not need to stand more under the spotlight of the press. He intends to find out where he went wrong. When The Touch of Stone was published in 1987, Soros hoped that the financial world and its periphery would respect him.But as an intellectual, he felt abandoned.However, the book did not shine a light on him, and the press was indifferent to his views contained in the book.When Soros realized that people were interested in his investment strategy rather than his theory, he was slightly disappointed. When Simon Scourster spoke to him about raising the profile of the book, Soros believed he was in the process of theoretically speaking with the press rather than exposing himself to his business career Various problems have been avoided. "You have to come out and promote the book publicly," a senior editor at the publishing house told him. "Yes, I guess that's all." Soros replied reluctantly. "What should I do?" "Oh," the press guy explained, "you should get Bliss, the New York Times, and others to interview you, and we'll get you in touch." Soros comforts himself with the rather naive idea that people will be interviewing accountants for his book.Several of his assistants also gave him an analysis: "No, they don't want to talk to you about your book. They want to know what you bought recently, this is what they want to ask, and this is what they want to know . On a Friday afternoon, Soros was in a meeting with several company managers.He suddenly announced that he was going to catch a train for Washington. "I'm going to be on Wall Street for the week," he seemed proud, "and they're going to talk about my book. Alan Raphael, one of the managers present, knew Soros didn't watch TV, but he tried to get help from it. "Do you know what this show is about?" "Of course, they want to discuss my book." Soros seemed confident.Raphael said again: "George, they don't want to discuss your book. They want to know what you're buying, what your favorite stocks are, and they're going to ask you a lot of questions that you don't want to answer." "No," Soros said, his voice less confident this time, "they'll be discussing my book." Soros appeared on the TV show that night, and sure enough, after two minutes of wit, the question was posed to him: "What's your favorite stock?" Regardless, Soros was prepared. "I do not want to tell you." Turns out he didn't tell him. In any case, this interview is his first foray into the world of public life.However, he didn't feel very comfortable about it.Soros entered another circle that surprised him. Donald Katz writes about Emotional Soros and says he wants to interview him.However, finding Soros was difficult.The writer seemed to have pulled out all the stops until he learned that Soros had written a book, which he later described as, "a deeply incomprehensible and sometimes surprising masterpiece." . Katz wrote the investor a long letter, pleading for an interview.His request was outwardly pleasing, and who could turn away a reader, turn away someone who claims to have read your book?A few days later, Soros gave Katz just 10 minutes.In fact, he wasn't entirely convinced that Katz had read The Touch of Stone. Upon arriving at the Soros office, Kaz was ushered into a waiting room filled with books such as "Rules for Quantitative Risk Assessment" and "The Political Economy of Socialism: A Marxist Perspective." books, he also found a Chinese book and a book about a painter.Soon Soros walked in, looking happy in a smart gray suit.He accompanied Katz into his spacious office. Then Soros started asking questions that were more like statements, tinged with cynicism or suspicion. "Oh, you said you happened to read my book?" Katz said he had seen it, but he sensed that Soros was skeptical. "Do you understand? Whatever Katz answered—he couldn’t offer any clues—made Soros determine his strategy for talking to the writer.He has the same views as in the televised speech in Washington. He is only concerned with philosophical issues and has no interest in making money. "My real interest is in real analysis," he explained to Katz. "That's the theory I care about. My success in the market just gives me a basis so that people look at me anew. I No interest in finding new clients. Then Soros grinned: "And, I really don't intend to get rich from this book."