While John was busy preparing for the "White Mountain" brigade, the two men arrived at the FedEx headquarters in Detroit. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info both of whom will play a pivotal role in John's later career development.

The first to come to the door was a gray-haired old man, not tall, wearing a handmade custom suit with a black bow tie and a pair of dark glasses. Although there are many wrinkles on his face, his smile is very contagious, like a kind old professor. The old man's name was Lawrence, and he was a political adviser introduced by William. Lawrence, 66, was a legendary lobbyist on K Street in the HSD District before coming to Detroit.

Speaking of lobbyists, we cannot fail to mention the rather distinctive lobbying system in American politics. In his previous life, before John came to the United States, he always thought that taking relationships was a Chinese characteristic. Later, I found out that in the United States, especially in the American political arena, we want to follow the relationship, but we have changed to a new word with more American characteristics -- "lobbying" (lobbying). In English, the word "lobbying" comes from the lobby of a building, where lobbyists lobbied members in the foyer of a parliament building when the modern parliamentary system was first established.

The history of political lobbying in the United States can be traced all the way back to 1792, when the country was founded. At the time, Virginia veterans who had fought in the Revolutionary War hired William Hull to lobby for the Continental Congress in order to get more compensation. Subsequently, various interest groups gradually began to pay attention to lobbying activities. Especially after Roosevelt's New Deal, the U.S. government began to adopt a government policy of actively intervening in the operation of society. This means that the public's personal life is more influenced by factors outside of themselves, forcing individuals and social groups to be more concerned about the relationship between these policies and their own gains and losses, and the main way to express this concern is through lobbying when government decisions are made. Today, HSD's lobbyist community is huge, with hundreds of lobbying firms clustered on "K Street" behind the White House and Capitol Hill, which is also nicknamed the "fourth pole" of American politics.

The lobbyist's main job is to provide clients with information about current bills or bills that will be voted on in Congress, and to seek changes to the bill's provisions for the benefit of clients. Because the Congress is the body that expresses the will of the people, the lobbyists mainly work with members of Congress and their assistants, especially influential members of Congress and the heads of some subcommittees. Lobbyists use a variety of tactics to convince lawmakers that the lobbyists' approach is correct and beneficial. Of course, if "reasoning" doesn't work, they have other more direct and effective methods.

In the days before the Federal Lobbying Act, it was an open secret that tourists directly bribed legislators. While this political corruption is well known, there is no way for the lobbying system to be abolished. Because the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution stipulates that Congress may not enact laws that deny people the right to peacefully assemble and petition the government. Therefore, there is a clear legal basis for lobbyists to directly go to the Diet as voters to express their opinions and influence the voting behavior of parliamentarians.

Even in later generations, when regulations governing lobbying were already strict, lobbyists still had ways to circumvent these restrictions. The law stipulates that lobbyists must spend under $50 on meals for members of parliament, and all expenses in a year may not exceed $100. However, the regulations only stipulate that if it is not possible to invite guests to dinner and give gifts, can we not buy a large number of books written by congressmen, can we still make efforts to "raise donations" for them during the election campaign, and can we not spend 200,000 or 300,000 yuan in appearance fees to invite them to give a "speech." As long as you want to convey benefits, lobbyists can always find a way.

To be a successful lobbyist is either particularly eloquent, long-sleeved, or well-qualified, or has a very senior background (there are many high-level politicians who have retired and entered the lobbying world), or they are particularly accomplished in a particular area (parliamentarians are not omniscient, and when faced with legislative issues in obscure areas, they tend to listen to the opinions of authorities in that field). But there is one thing that they must have, that is, they must have a deep and clear understanding of the ecological environment of the entire American political arena, and they must have a good understanding of the relationship between various political factions and interest groups.

Lawrence is such a veteran lobbyist who is familiar with all kinds of insider information in American politics. He worked in the government as a young man, serving as a White House staff member and later as a less successful member of the House of Representatives. After his term, he became a lobbyist for K Avenue and began using his connections in government and Congress to match several large corporations. Lawrence's most successful career as a lobbyist was successfully blocking President Roosevelt's plan to reshuffle the Supreme Court last year.

At that time, President Roosevelt's contradictions with the Federal Supreme Court were very acute. The nine tenured justices of the Supreme Court (most of whom are over 70 years old, nicknamed the Nine Elders) have always adhered to laissez-faire ideals and were hostile to New Deal legislation. They ruled that a number of new policies and regulations, such as the Agricultural Adjustment Act, the Securities and Exchange Act, the Farm Mortgage Act, the Urban Bankruptcy Act, and the Federal Wage and Working Hours Act, were unconstitutional and repealed. This greatly annoyed President Roosevelt, who was determined to change the situation after winning the second presidential election.

Roosevelt's counterattack strategy was a complete reshuffle of the Supreme Court. Because the Supreme Court justices are for life and the president has no power to replace them, he proposed a 1:1 ratio of additional judges on the grounds that the court's workload is too great for the elderly judges over 70 to complete. This is actually an attempt to change the balance of power in the Supreme Court by "mixing sand". At that time, Lawrence succeeded in convincing the leaders of the opposition Republican party, temporarily suppressing the protests of Republican lawmakers. He convinced Republican lawmakers that Democrats would unite if the Supreme Court reshuffle plan was given a partisan overtone. With Lawrence's lobbying, Democratic Senator Burton Wheeler was eventually elected leader of the opposition in the congressional battle. This greatly divided and weakened the Roosevelt faction in Congress, which successfully blocked the proposed Supreme Court reshuffle in a final vote.

Lawrence's political wisdom in the congressional battle earned him universal acclaim, and he has since become a frequent visitor to the mansions of the most prominent politicians. Soon after, however, Lawrence had to retire from the HSD lobby due to a heart attack. I don't know what method William used this time to invite this master who had just recovered from a serious illness out of the mountain and became John's personal political adviser.

John, who thought he was a little politically indifferent, was overjoyed by Lawrence's arrival, and hurriedly rushed back to the company headquarters from the construction site of the "White Mountain" brigade training base. He knows that his ignorance of American politics is a major shortcoming in the development of FedEx Corporation, and now with the guidance of Lawrence, he no longer has to be afraid of being accidentally dragged into the political whirlpool.

Lawrence was pleased with John's deferential attitude, but also disdainful of John's fear of politics. He earnestly admonished John, "No matter how small a tiger cub is, he is still a tiger, and he is born to eat meat." John already had what it took to be a political predator, and to be so timid would make other predators see him as a weak target.

"Take the initiative when it's time to be aggressive, and be tough when it's time to be tough." Lawrence said, "It's useless to evade, and you can only buy more time for development by making your opponent think you're not good to deal with." The important thing for you now is to accumulate experience, not to make mistakes, and not to be afraid of losing money. I'm too old to help you for long, and I'll have to rely on yourself in the future. ”

John finally understood that Lawrence had not been so much hired by William as he had been invited to embolden himself. It was a mule or a horse, and it was only until it was a slippery end that John gritted his teeth and decided to go into the water to give it a try. He stood up and bowed to Lawrence: "Then in the future, please take care of me." ”