“A real desire to cause trouble”: we read Xavier Niel's book, here are the 7 juiciest anecdotes

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After a one-man show at the Olympia that caused a stir, here is the book. At the beginning of October, Xavier Niel and his best friend Jean-Louis Missika published the book “A Really Want to Cause Trouble” published by Flammarion . This book, which takes the form of a conversation between two friends (a bit like a podcast) looks back at the different stages of the journey of the “telecoms troublemaker&# 8221;.

From his childhood in Créteil to his time in prison, via the 42 school and of course the Freebox, Xavier Niel returns with his optimism, his cheekiness and his unfiltered language on his very atypical journey.

Rather than summarizing the story of the young resident of Créteil from a modest family who became a billionaire, we have chosen 7 anecdotes at least as juicy as Xavier Niel's media outings.

© Ecole 42

One of Xavier Niel's great prides is without a doubt École 42, this unique institution that trains tomorrow's developers for free without teachers. Despite an innovative concept, success has not been there everywhere. Xavier Niel reveals in the book the difficulties encountered during the establishment of the school in the United States.

“We thought it would go like a letter in the post”, he confides. “But we encountered a completely different culture.The free, no-degree training model, so innovative in France, did not find its audience across the Atlantic. “The Americans did not understand why something was being offered for free. They thought there had to be a trap,, explains Xavier Niel with a hint of bitterness. “If we had said that the registration fee was $200,000, maybe it would have worked. But we didn't try it.

This experience, however, allowed the entrepreneur to learn valuable lessons on adapting his concepts internationally. The case of Algeria is the perfect example. On several occasions, Xavier Niel went to Algerian soil with the President of the Republic to set up Ecole 42. But the ghost of colonization always prevented him from doing so. The project remains in his mind but he does not want to rush things.

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The most juicy anecdote in the book is probably the one where Xavier Niel tells how, at the age of 18, he managed to hack the phones at the Élysée Palace. In 1986, the young Xavier, already passionate about computers and telecommunications, was approached by the DST (ancestor of the DGSI) for a special mission.

“They wanted to prove the vulnerability of the presidential communications system”, he explains. “I managed to intercept outgoing calls from the Élysée in just a few hours.” This technical feat, achieved with the approval of the secret services, allowed the DST to obtain a budget extension to strengthen the security of presidential communications.

Xavier Niel adds mischievously: “I never listened to Mitterrand's conversations, but I could have. That was a hell of a responsibility for an 18 year old!

© Saad Chaudhry/Unsplash

A whole chapter of the book is devoted to a little-known episode in Xavier Niel's life: < strong>his imprisonment in 2004 in connection with an alleged pimping case. Although he was ultimately dismissed, These few weeks spent behind bars have deeply marked the entrepreneur.

“It was a traumatic experience, but also very trainer”, he confides. “I understood the importance of freedom and I& ;#8217;I developed a new empathy for those who are excluded from society.” This experience strengthened his determination to succeed and prove his innocence.

Xavier Niel recounts, not without a certain emotion, how this difficult period also revealed the loyalty of his loved ones and his teams at Free. “They never doubted me and continued to move the company forward in my absence. That's when I realized I had built something solid.

Later, when he returned to Créteil, his hometown, to speak at a high school, he explained that the young people agreed to listen to him when he told them he had spent time in prison.

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© France Telecom

The book also returns to the Minitel. Xavier Niel looks back on the epic of this “little miracle for France”. With a mixture of’ admiration and regret, he analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of this French innovation that preceded the Internet.

“The Minitel , it was the result of a stroke of genius by one or two guys who had the political courage of Giscard who gave the green light, explains -he. “We must not forget that we have equipped all French households with a Minitel!”< /p>

However, Xavier Niel points out the bureaucratic management that followed this initial innovation. “Then we entrusted all that to the administration. And then it all went to hell”, he laments. For him, this episode perfectly illustrates France's difficulties in transforming its innovations into lasting successes on a global scale. That didn't stop it from making a fortune with the Minitel rose before building Iliad.

Freebox Ultra © Free Mobile

The work also raises the veil on the beginnings of the Freebox, this small box, unique in its kind at the time, which revolutionized Internet access in France. Xavier Niel passionately recounts how the idea was born from a simple observation:

“We wanted people to be able to have Internet at home without needing a computer.”

He reveals the technical and financial obstacles that had to be overcome to make this vision a reality. “We were told it was impossible, that it would cost too much. But we persisted”, he recalls. In fact, his best friend, co-author of the book, met him at that time when he was working for an investment firm. He had to decide on the Free project, which was completely crazy at the time. But Xavier Niel's determination paid off: Free has become a key player in the French telecom landscape.

Xavier Niel also shares a funny anecdote about choosing the name “Freebox”: “We wanted a name that would make an impression. Someone suggested ‘Freebox’ as a joke, and it made us laugh. In the end, we kept it!”

© PeopleImages.com – Yuri A – Shutterstock.com

Xavier Niel also returns to the controversy of call centers. In a public speech, he described the employees of these structures as 21st century workers, a formulation which shocked at the time.

In the book, Xavier Niel returns to this statement.“It was very clumsy. I wanted to say that it's a very hard job, but I didn't use the right words.” he explains. He then details his vision for improving working conditions in this sector, in particular by creating mini-call centers with fewer than ten people.

“We launched an experiment five years ago”, he says. “Today, more than 40% of the support is already done like this and it continues to develop.”

The story of the creation of Station F, the largest start-up incubator in the world, occupies an important place in the book. Xavier Niel recounts in particular his surprising meeting with François Hollande, then President of the Republic.

“Hollande came to visit the construction site of Station F”, remembers Xavier Niel. “He said to me: ‘What you're doing is great, but how much will it cost the State ?&#8217 I had to explain to him that it was an entirely private project, financed with my own funds.

This anecdote illustrates, according to Xavier Niel, the difficulty some politicians have in designing large-scale projects without state intervention. I invested 250 million euros in Station F, he explains. “It was important for me to do it alone, to prove that French entrepreneurship could achieve great things without subsidies.”

On the other hand, Xavier Niel also benefited from the enlightenment of President Hollande. During the presentation of the project, the boss of Free explained to François Hollande that he wanted to create a center of 1,000 start-ups. A figure as impressive as it was symbolic. And François Hollande retorted: “but are you sure that there are 1,000 start-ups in France ?”. Indeed, carried by his optimism, Xavier Niel had forgotten this slight detail.

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