RAFAEL TUDELA; "HOW I MADE MY FIRST MILLION".

"A man can not sit down alone to plan for prosperity" these words of the elders have had a very valuable input in the life of Venezuelan oil magnate Rafael Tudela. I came across his biography for the first time 10 years ago and then read about him in a book called " what they do not teach you in Harvard". Rafael Tudela cuts across as the quintessential street wise guy who strategised and worked his way to wealth. He is one of the few i continually refer to as "born to be wealthy". Tudela was a petroleum engineer and produced glass, but at the age of 34, upon hearing that Argentina was trying to buy $17 million of butane gas, he said to a friend " if i get the contract for the butane in Argentina, i am going full fledged into the oil business.... Thereafter, he went off to Buenos Aires to bid. Of course he was unprepared for what he met. Some of the big oil companies from the Seven sisters, but he was undeterred. Later on he went to socialize with government officials at the club. At night he retired to his hotel room but could not sleep as one thing kept on repeating in his head from his interactions" Argentina, a net producer had surplus frozen beef to unload". The next day he booked to see senior officials at the presidency and assured them he would solve their problem and take off the beef...on one condition "i sell you my butane gas". He knew Spain was a major customer for Argentine beef and were also in crisis being forced to lay off workers and shut down a major shipyard in an election year.Although Spain was not eager to buy meat, he flew to Spain and approached the authorities with an attractive offer;He would order a 100,000-ton Spanish tanker if they would accept $11 million of frozen beef as payment. Spain agreed, the shipyard was saved and the politicians happy. Once he had that commitment, Tudela had no trouble obtaining a loan to buy the gas. Off he was again to San francisco the Standard Oil company a former Rockerfella company to buy his butane. He earned a handsome $2 million profit and Argentina awarded Tudela the butane contract.I have therefore decided to share this piece and hope you all enjoy it..... "Chess teaches you to have strategic tactics," he says. "You learn to see things as a game." He fixes his visitor with a cold smile. "I rarely lose." At the expense of much of the industrialized world, Tudela also applies the chess master's gifts of cunning, foresight and opportunism to the shadowy, high-stakes game of the spot-oil trader. The petroleum engineer is one of the little-known speculators who operate in the widening commercial gap between the greed of those who produce the world's oil and the desperation of those who must have it, at whatever price. Tudela has no apologies for his profession. "You have to be pragmatic in business and follow the rules established in the world," he says blandly. "It is perfectly legitimate to buy and sell oil that is available." Tudela is a grand strategist of the spot-oil game, and it has made him very rich. "A lot depends on psychology," he says. "I use what I call 'the nose.' " Scenting the Shah's downfall and a consequent drop in supply in early years, for example, Tudela gambled $5 million on a shipload of Ecuadorian crude, at $16.30 a barrel—the highest price ever paid at that time. A few days later the Shah fell and Tudela found a worried U.S. customer willing to buy at $20 a barrel. The Venezuelan trader's profit for a few days on the telephone: $1.1 million. "The real secret is the people you know and the reputation you have," says Tudela. TO BE CONTINUED