In Jack Warren's memory, Franklin Turner was, at best, not particularly awkward during school—certainly not what you’d call an active personality. Unexpectedly, after graduation, Franklin Turner seemed like a changed person: not only did he become eloquent, but he also displayed extraordinary business talent.

Last year, Franklin Turner approached Jack Warren, asking him to help find a group of management master's students at the school. He hired them at a rate of 5 yuan per thousand characters to cobble together a massive, two-million-character “Encyclopedia of Business Management Knowledge.”

Don’t think that price is too low—Franklin Turner’s requirements were even lower than the pay standard. He drew up a knowledge checklist and had the master’s students follow it to the library to gather materials. Most of the content was directly photocopied and pasted, at most with a changed title or a few lines of introduction. This approach, twenty years later, would be enough to trigger hundreds of copyright lawsuits, but in the early 1990s, who cared about such things?

After paying out ten thousand yuan in manuscript fees, Franklin Turner somehow managed to contact a publishing house, bought an ISBN, and got the book published—a thick, hefty hardcover, more dangerous than a brick if you used it to hit someone. At a time when an ordinary textbook cost only a few yuan, Franklin Turner set a sky-high price of 248 yuan for this book, which nearly made Jack Warren fall over in shock.

“Are you crazy? This is just a bunch of cut-and-paste material, and you’re charging that much—who’s going to buy it?” Jack Warren demanded, eyes wide, questioning Franklin Turner.

He got his answer soon enough.

Franklin Turner recruited a dozen or so university students from rural backgrounds, gave each of them two copies of the book, and told them that as long as they sold them and brought back 180 yuan per copy, the rest would be their sales commission.

The students, half-believing, went out to sell. In just two days, every student sold both copies, and all their customers were major state-owned enterprises in Beijing.

For teachers and students in universities, the book Franklin Turner compiled was practically worthless—the theories and concepts inside had been covered thousands of times in textbooks, and the master’s students inevitably made some mistakes while copying, with jokes like “常凯申” popping up everywhere. But for the secretaries of various organizations’ leaders, this book was a lifesaver, a true bible that could rescue them from disaster.

Since the start of the reforms, especially after the country adopted the market economy model, leaders at all levels had been talking about updating their mindsets. When giving speeches or work reports, if you didn’t throw in a few new terms or say things like “Schumpeter pointed out” or “Joan Robinson believed,” how could you call yourself a trendsetter in the market economy?

But in the days before Baidu, were these new terms and concepts so easy to find? Secretaries are human, not walking libraries. If a leader heard a new term somewhere and came back to ask you what it meant, how would you answer?

At just this moment, the salespeople sent by Franklin Turner appeared before them, offering a thick management encyclopedia that included every concept the leaders had heard of—and those they hadn’t. No more worrying about not knowing who Keynes was; now, I even know Samuelson, Hayek, John Stuart Mill, Boston... uh, no, that’s the Boston Matrix. Boston! Matrix! I can put that in the leader’s speech today and be sure to impress all the other leaders!

As for the 248 yuan price tag—was it really that expensive?

If you can get an invoice, who would complain about the price?

What’s more, the university students selling the books knew the ropes: they issued a 248 yuan invoice but only collected 220 yuan in cash. Why not buy five or ten more copies of a book like this?

Each student selling books earned over 100 yuan in commission. At a time when a government official’s monthly salary was less than 200 yuan, earning 100 yuan in two days—what did that mean for these kids from rural backgrounds?

What more is there to say? Brother Turner, Mr. Warren, however many books you have left, we’ll take them all!

The first print run of 4,000 copies sold out in less than a month. Every student involved in selling the books made several thousand yuan, swapped their old Zhongshan suits from home for brand-new stand-collar jackets, and stopped crowding the big window in the cafeteria, becoming regulars at the stir-fry counter instead.

As for Franklin Turner and Jack Warren, they recovered a total of 700,000 yuan in book sales. After deducting publishing, printing, and business tax for hiring someone to issue invoices, each of them ended up with over 100,000 yuan in their accounts, instantly becoming the richest in their class—tied for first place.

Before Jack Warren even had time to warm up to the money he’d received, Franklin Turner came up with a new idea. He pooled their money together, used their parents’ ID cards, and registered a cultural company.

According to Franklin Turner, since he worked in a ministry and Jack Warren was a teacher at the university, it would be inconvenient to open a company in their own names. Borrowing their parents’ IDs to stand in was no big deal.

Jack Warren completely agreed about not being able to set up the company directly. The students who sold books last time had skipped too many classes and already attracted the school’s attention. If the school found out he was the one hiring these students, whether he could keep his job as a counselor would be up in the air.