Looking for Cracks, There Is No Iron Wall

After passing the extremely difficult Atari quality inspection, all I had to do was to wait for orders. However, a week passed, a month passed, no news arrived. I had to contact those technicians yet got the following reply only:

“We have no idea. The report of quality inspection has been submitted.”

This was really an anxious moment, because I had to stay beside the telephone all day doing nothing. I did not spend a penny in my family. In order to maintain basic living, my wife had to go to work. She found a job as a nutritionist in a hospital. The renting period of our small shop was due, but I really felt sorry to my wife and two daughters.

I called the person in charge of the order in Atari, but always got the same reply: wait a moment, and no decision has been made yet... In the end, they even refused to answer my phone. Although our monitors passed their quality test, it was difficult for them to order our monitors that from a small company without any reputation. For Atari, monitors produced in an unknown company is bound to have problems in the future; in that case, it was more reassuring to order expensive Motorola monitors which had been in use for a while. It appeared that the report had not been submitted yet.

I felt that we could not wait any longer, and must go directly to meet the president of Atari. However, it was far more difficult to see the president than to see the person in charge of order-taking. I still got no reply even though I left a message. I called directly to the president, but my call was not transferred at all.

I even went directly to the company and waited at the door of the president's office for more than an hour. I also waited at the gate of the restaurant where the president often went. However, I simply could not find an opportunity to meet with the president. Other ways must be found. I suddenly remembered that Lauren Bush, president of Atari was graduated from Utah State University, majoring in electrical engineering. I was graduated there too. I found the way out.

“I'm looking for Mr. Bush.”

“I am in a meeting and can not answer the phone. If you are interested in the business, please leave a message.”

“It's nothing to do with business, I'm your president's old classmate, and I have something important to tell him.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, let me make the appointment for you.”

As I imagined, it became much easier when I mentioned that I was the president's old classmate. Business was a big headache, and was generally handled by the employees; I was the university alumnus, so that the situation became completely different. I finally sat face to face with the president.

We were chatting memories and old stories happened in the university. It seemed that the president soon confirmed that I was his alumnus. Everything became very harmonious.Just when I was about to raise my mind, the president asked me about my recent plans. When he heard that I was producing game monitors, he opened his eyes wide. The exclusive manufacturer Motorola always could not supply monitors in time, its monitors were quite expensive. It had been a big problem for the president for long.

“Really? Are you producing monitors?”

“Yes, and my monitors have passed the technical tests of your company.”

“Oh? And how about your price? Is it very expensive since your company is not very big now?”

“No, we're making them on the TV production lines in a Korean factory, so the price of our monitors is 20% cheaper than those from Motorola. However, your manager in charge of orders did not order from us even though he knew the situation.”

The president immediately called the responsible person and scolded loudly that why hesitate ordering with a confirmed product. That guy looked very embarrassed, but I was happy with it.

Atari sent a monitor order the next day. That was the first order received by“TELE VIDEO” with a total 2,000 monitors and valued USD 150,000. Really unbelievable.

When I first went to South Korea to persuade those electronics manufacturers to produce monitors, TAIHAN put forward its requirement that it would one batch of production should be at least 200 monitors. While the first order that I received was 10 times that number, which was 2,000 units.