Her Swedish Billionaire's Baby(11)

 

She really didn’t want to tell her. She seemed to like feeling pity for her, but there was only so much sorry a person could feel for another, and she felt like the few things she’d told her must have already strained her capacity to sympathize to the limit, or possibly push her story past credulity. Had her life really been that tragic? Maybe so, but Alison and Dad obviously didn’t think so. They’d always acted like she had it made, looks and smarts and being the baby of the family. “Six months,” she finally said shortly.

 

Yeah, she pitied her. She saw the pain for her on her face. She let go of her hand, put her arm around her waist, and hugged her close. There was one person in the world who understood. It shouldn’t surprise her that it wasn’t family.

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 3

 

 

 

 

 

Samara checked her email, reading through a message she’d gotten from the dean’s office with a frown. Once she was through she sat back with a sigh.

 

“Huh..” she said. “I should post that on the message board.”

 

Since she was alone, there was no response from anyone and so she logged into her class blog and copied and pasted the message on there.

 

Samara is online now

 

Senior Member

 

Organization: Masters Student UCLA

 

Department: TA/MBA

 

Active: 2008-2015

 

Join Date: Feb 2009

 

Posts: 1,733

 

Jan Fredriksen- RIP

 

From one of my professional Institutes have just had the following Press Release:-

 

Nordstorm’s founder, ship-owner, entrepreneur and family man, Jan Fredriksen has passed away at the age of 66 years old. He leaves behind his children Freja, Arvid, Leo and Bjorn and their families.

 

Jan Fredriksen was one of Sweden's greatest entrepreneurs of all time. He was born in 1954 on the island of Donsö, in Gothenburg's southern archipelago. His childhood on Donsö was marked by close family feeling, responsibility, thrift and diligence, something that would characterize his personality and life. Jan Fredriksen's father, Gustav Fredriksen, was a major role model for his son. By the time he was 27 years old, he had bought a schooner, on which he was the master. And thus was born the young Jan’s dream, one day he would run his own business. The seed to Nordstorm's success story was sewn.

 

The first step was to get an education. He attended both Ljungskile Folk High School and the commercial college in Gothenburg. After various trainee ships, and just 22 years old, he started his first enterprise, the trading company Jan Fredriksen Metallprodukter. Jan Fredriksen had a rare feeling combined with a talent for business. This, combined with hard work, thrift and honesty, made the business flourish. What had started as a small company in the scrap industry quickly grew under Jan Fredriksen’s leadership. The shipping company was started in 1974 and during the 1980s it was operating 12 owned and 12 chartered freighters in coastal traffic. Today, the Nordstorm Sphere is a successful group of companies with operations spread all around the world.

 

Jan Fredriksen was not the type of director to sit on his laurels, far from the operations. Quite the opposite. He managed the businesses with a firm hand and worked hard and was goal-oriented.

 

1992 was a crucial year in Nordstorm's history. This was the year when Jan Fredriksen entered the passenger ferry business, on the Gothenburg-Skagen route. This was the start of Nordstorm Line, which has grown into one of the world's largest ferry companies.

 

The original operations, today in the form of Nordstorm Metall, have continued to grow and today they constitute one of the Nordic countries' largest recycling companies; Nordstorm Fastigheter is one of Sweden's largest private property companies; Nordstorm Bulk together with Concordia Maritime account for Sweden's largest tanker shipping business; Nordstorm Drilling is Sweden's sole Swedish controlled business carrying out off-shore drilling for oil. Many other enterprises within the Nordstorm Sphere, thanks to Jan Fredriksen's fundamental values, have remained successful and profitable.

 

So today, the Nordstorm Sphere is one of Sweden's largest family owned groups of companies with more than 20,000 employees and a turnover of around SEK 60 billion.

 

As a businessman, Jan Fredriksen was innovative and known for taking decisions relying on his intuition combined with thorough and rapidly completed practical analysis. He was not afraid to go his own way and he had the courage to make difficult decisions. One of his mottos was: Don't let setbacks get you down, get back on track. Fly low and far.

 

Nor did Jan Fredriksen forget where he came from and he kept his ideals from his upbringing on Donsö throughout his life. His leadership style was characterized by a practical philosophy: You are never better than the information you have gathered. Which is why he could often be seen on the quayside talking to both customers and employees.