Aristotle Onassis was born in 1906 in the Greek town of Smyrna [later occupied by Turkey]. A few facts about his childhood show that those years were quite difficult: he lost his mother when he was a child, and his father remarried after a year and a half. His relationship with his stepmother is very bad: they are in a state of constant war, he thinks she is a squatter and refuses to obey her. Once, his stepmother became so bad that the boy was sent to a friendly neighbor's house for a while. In addition, his relationship with his father is not much better. In Smyrna is a wealthy wholesaler, he is a strict father, his son is afraid.
Due to these problems, Onassis was mostly raised by his grandmother. He also did not perform well at school. He entered the school when he was 7 years old in 1913. He doesn't like to study, and he doesn't like to go to class. He is also extremely destructive and annoyed his classmates. As a result, he was fired from all the schools he attended. His desperate father then wrote a teacher of Aristo, who was considering "suicide because of the boy." In this case, it is not surprising that Onassis has never completed his studies. When he took the final exam required for the high school diploma in 1922, he failed - he never tried again.
In the same year, his situation became more difficult: the Turks invaded the town of Smyrna in Onassis after defeating the Greek army. In the next disaster, the young Onassis - then 16 years old - was caught up, as he often recalled. The Turkish army swept the town from side to side for many days, killing, looting and burning. Men and women were forcibly taken out of their homes and killed in the streets. The refugee-filled church was covered in oil and the people trying to go out were attracted by the bayonet on the church steps. Five days later, when the chaos ended, about 120,000 Greeks were missing. Smyrna was completely destroyed.
When the Turks entered the town and closed the doors and windows, Onassis' father gathered his family at home. They were frightened and watched the crack on the wall break. Their only source of income - the town's store - has been destroyed. On the fifth day, the Turks entered the house and arrested the father, leaving young Onassis as the only male there. The next day, Onassis took on the responsibility of helping his family. He walked into the chaotic streets of Smyrna, and he happened to meet the US Deputy Consul. With his involvement, the Onassis family immediately took a boat to the nearby Greek island of Lesbos. But Onassis was left to save his father who was imprisoned.
He quickly went to the prison to visit his father, where he found him sick and upset. When Onassis left the prison, the Turks arrested him. But he managed to escape; he was afraid to run to the office of the deputy consul. The next day, he was heading to Lesbos - a sailor on a US warship. Three weeks later, the Onassis family arrived in Greece's Piraeus port - war refugees - in a tragic state.
Onassis' father was later released and joined them. However, for young Onassis, the eradication of the family is an oppressive experience. Throughout next year [1923], he had a "feelful feeling" - he later said - and spent his days in Athens, retreating alone. He did not have any contact with his classmates who came to Greece before, and he was not willing to participate in the commercial-tobacco trade that his father started in a difficult environment.
In desperation, he had the idea of immigrating to the United States. But he could not get a visa, so as a second choice he decided to be in Argentina. Unfortunately, his father strongly opposed it, so that he refused to give him money for the ticket. Onassis was forced to ask for loans from some of his friends. He got a negligible amount and started taking risks. In August 1923, he left the port of Piraeus in Greece and arrived in Buenos Aires one month later. He is only 17 years old, clutching a broken suitcase and penniless.
His first priority is of course to find a job. He quickly realized that it was not easy. In order to keep himself alive, he had to wash the dishes in the restaurant and transport the bricks on the construction site. Finally, in March 1924, he found an electrician's job at the telephone company in Buenos Aires. Since he did not make enough money, he had to ask for a night shift so that he could do another job during the day. This is not what Argentina's Onassis dreamed of.
But in 1925, the fate of Onassis changed. After he found a decent job, the next step was to reach an agreement with his father so that he could start selling Greek tobacco in Argentina. As early as 1925, he began to correspond with his father, and soon they fixed their relationship. Soon, he persuaded his father to send him a sample of quality Greek tobacco. With the arrival of the samples, Onassis began to visit Argentine cigarette manufacturers, trying to sell tobacco to them. He quickly received his first order for $10,000. Due to the quality of the tobacco, there will soon be a second order for $50,000. Orders are getting faster and faster. Onassis didn't even have time to sleep. By May 1925, he had managed to deposit $25,000 in the bank - not bad for those who were recently penniless.
In the same month, he resigned from the work of the telephone company and started his own business: he started making his own cigarettes - in the small room where he lived. This business was very successful and soon Onassis began a noble life. He frequents concert halls and clubs and builds friendships with wealthy young people. At the beginning of 1926, he moved out of the small room where he lived and opened a hotel suite in the most outstanding area of Buenos Aires. He also bought a car and took classes in French and English.
But this season is still "spring": there are also some showers. In the summer of 1929, the Greek government increased import tariffs on countries that had no commercial agreements by 1,000%. Argentina is one of them, and Onassis is worried that Argentina will retaliate by raising import tariffs on Greek products, making the trading of Greek tobacco impossible. He decided to return to Greece in the same year [1929] to persuade the authorities to exempt Argentina from increasing tariffs. After a heated discussion with the Greek Prime Minister, Onassis - and then only 23 - finally won this battle. The spring shower passed.
Onassis' visit to Greece has another advantage: he is not only reunited with his family, but also has a little victory in reunion. He is the son who came back successfully, and his son remitted money to the widows at home for the cost of education for the children. In addition, the settlement with the father is now complete. After returning to Argentina in 1929, Onassis first entered an activity field and will eventually bring him amazing wealth: shipping. He bought a dilapidated 7,000-ton ship for 25 years.
But a lot of money comes from the tobacco trade. From 1930 to 1931, he expanded his business to Cuba and Brazil. A year later, a new source of profit was added: the Greek government recognized his commercial potential and appointed him as the national consul of Buenos Aires - only 26 years old. In this position, Onassis can now obtain foreign currency at the official exchange rate and resell it in the free market to obtain huge profits. This position also gave him two advantages: he was able to acquire Argentine citizenship and established many important connections in the international shipping community.
In the fall of 1932, Onassis brought all his savings - about $600,000 - to London, the capital of the sea world, to buy ships. Ship prices fell sharply due to the economic collapse from 1929 to 1932. A 10-year-old freighter built $1 million in 1920 and is now available for $20,000. Onassis did not take a long time to find what he wanted: he sold ten such ships in St. Lawrence, Canada. In the same winter, he was discovered in St. Lawrence. After a brief negotiation, he bought six such ships in 1933 - each for $20,000.
Onassis' career as a ship owner has begun.
Orignal From: Successful experience: What did the life of Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis reveal?
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