Storm the Blockade, Then Recruit Allies

“They finally admit to me that it is the importing firm, my direct competitor but their main client, who threatened them: "If you unload Pinault's wood, we will divert our ships to another port." I managed to shake them, but they didn't want to take risks for me. Dockers have a monopoly. We cannot use labor outside of them. Finally, to prevent my boat from having to go elsewhere, which would have resulted in a great waste of time and even more money for me, by repeatedly arguing that an additional importer was more work for them in the long term, they compromised: "If you bring in your own staff, we will turn a blind eye." They were opening a door for me."”

“What he has just achieved with the help of his clients and the few workers he had at the time has become a kind of dress rehearsal for his approach at the start of his career. His favourite way of progressing is to storm the difficulties, to force his way through. He has always, and he will always, aim to mobilise those who work with him, to instill in them more than a team spirit, a real spirit of attack and conquest. And this first aggressive move initiated a plentiful series. "I often had a rebellious attitude towards my competitors, I never fit into the mould, into the professional schemes," he confides to me with certain satisfaction.”