Luck favors the prepared - A 500 word Short Story

Alain Druker was a giant. A true business genius. Many pundits consider him right beside Steve Jobs and Bill Gates even though his personal fortune was much lesser than them. Alain had built an empire from ashes. He had started off as a desk reporter for the One Earth News Corp. just a year before the banking bubble had burst. In the next three years the Internet had risen to occupy much of "daily news-space" and was continuing to grow. In the same time dozens of small news companies both print and TV had closed down or merged to form a viable entity.

In those times when most of the journalistic world was in chaos Alain had changed the face of news. He had literally shaped the way the industry worked. And the next decade had seen the rise of One Earth News Corp. On the day of his death the One Earth conglomerate was worth seventy five billion dollars and his personal worth was nearly two billion dollars.

But geniuses also make mistakes. Alain's biggest mistake had been his second marriage. Karla was smart and beautiful and toxic. His two children April and Neal had moved away. His personal secretary of twenty years had quit and his friend and business partner of many years had started to avoid social contact. Alain had a son from Karla- Julian but he had taken after his mother and caused more trouble and pain than Alain could stand; especially when he became sick.

Because of his strained family life Alain's will had come as a surprise to all. He had divided his fortune into three parts. The shares of the largest newspapers and the largest news channel he had bequeathed to Karla and her son; this was nearly half of Alain's wealth. To April he had left his two houses and most of his personal belongings, about twenty percent of his fortune. The rest went to Neal.

Only later was the nature of the bequests revealed. The companies Julian was given control of were huge but had equally huge debt and required faultless nurturing 24/7. Though these news-houses were profitable the over-all industry size was shrinking and would soon require radical change. April had turned the larger of the houses which was on prime beach property into an exclusive vintage hotel. The other house was sold for a much larger sum than the value calculated at the time of Alain's death. Neal had to struggle with the small set up he had inherited because a large chunk of his share was invested in blooming companies- Google and Dell. But his push into using satellites for global coverage and a multi-national footprint paid off when the Gulf War happened. His channel CNN was the one covering the war from the battle lines.

People still speculate whether Alain actually forecast that Neal's share of investments would multiply and Julian would be mired in huge debt. Or Alain was brow beaten into bequeathing Karla and Julian the juiciest properties and the rest was just luck.

PICTURE CREDIT: Pixabay - https://pixabay.com/photos/airline-architecture-buildings-city-1807486/