Chapter 115: How to Be a Successful Person

In another room, the mayor sighed as he sat on the sofa, sipping his coffee. Suddenly, he asked, “Have the people from Liston arrived?”

Liston Group was one of Sabin City’s key economic pillars and a well-known light industry company within the Baylor Federation.

With over seventy brands under its wing covering all aspects of daily life, some famous trademarks and some ordinary, it was far from a small company.

Around 30,000 to 50,000 people in the city worked in industries linked to Liston. It was also a progressive party-aligned enterprise, with a history of pleasant cooperation.

As usual, Liston representatives always showed up promptly at small meetings sharing social dividends, eager to demonstrate their leading role.

But this time, no one from Liston came.

An aide shook his head. “I called Neo just now, but no one answered.”

The mayor nodded casually without further comment.

Neo, Liston’s current CEO and a major board shareholder, had just turned forty-five and already reached the peak of his career.

He and the mayor were good friends, but recently their relationship had soured.

The conflict stemmed from the progressive party’s arrangement involving EverBright Group. Before EverBright’s collapse, Liston planned to take full control—but that was impossible.

Though Liston was a key supporter of the progressive party, they were not the only one. Many others within the state wanted a share.

After the giant fell, everyone wanted a bite. Neo’s ambition to monopolize was unattainable. Even their proposal to take at least a third of EverBright was rejected.

Liston had contributed significantly to EverBright’s downfall but failed to achieve their initial goals, leaving many shareholders dissatisfied.

Feeling betrayed, Neo changed his behavior. He began avoiding public appearances with the mayor and other progressive politicians. Rumors spread that he might switch to supporting the conservatives to retaliate for his losses.

Neo’s absence and lack of representatives intensified the disputes in the meeting outside.

No one wanted to share benefits. Greedy and cunning, they tried to seize advantages while Liston was absent.

Even if they had to give it up later, at least they’d tasted it.

The fiercer their quarrel, the clearer it became to the mayor: when facing these baring-fangs capitalists, he needed a predator more vicious than them on his side to keep them in check.

Otherwise, no matter how much influence he held, those bills smelling of fresh ink spoke louder than his authority.

The idea of cultivating his own ruthless capitalist took root deeply in the mayor’s mind. If he had such a person, would those others dare openly question his plans?

No political persecution or assassination was needed—just the threat of bankruptcy would teach them to tuck their tails and behave.

Unconsciously, the mayor’s mind flashed tdayao Lynch’s young face. He didn’t know why he thought of him now—maybe because of the aide’s reminder or Lynch’s deep impression.

While many young people chased thrills and so-called pleasures, Lynch was already doing things beyond his peers’ and even their fathers’ reach.

Could it be him?

The mayor sighed, smiled, and finished his coffee. He’d rested enough and needed to face the snarling capitalists outside.

With a calm, composed expression and steady mood, he negotiated with these sharp-toothed capitalists like wild wolves licking their fangs, eventually reaching a result acceptable to all.

All EverBright Group’s investments in Sabin City would be internally auctioned in a non-public way, and the attendees here would be the bidders.

At the same time, they earned tickets to an even bigger feast.

Sometimes the world was cold, cruel, and disappointing. Maybe it had to run this way, but it still let most people down.

Before adjournment, the mayor mentioned an issue about a piece of land in the city, hinting that the city hall might have a new development plan within the next cycle, possibly affecting land prices.

This was why capitalists crazily funneled money into political donations legally—they needed returns after offering cheap loyalty and expensive wealth.

Whether the mayor had other motives was unclear, but they’d pay attention and find out. If necessary, they wouldn’t mind making some profit along the way.

Time flew to Friday. Changes in the upper class were invisible to the lower class except for rising unemployment and growing anxiety among the lower strata.

Occasionally, police cars screamed past—an obvious sign that crime rates were quietly surging.

Lynch was arranging staff at the city sports arena, which held 8,000 for indoor events. Interestingly, it was originally built for watching football games.

Though it had shrunk to an indoor arena, it was still satisfactory. The city council proved they hadn’t forgotten sports development and public health amid economic growth.

Tomorrow, the weekly second-hand goods auction would be held here.

Temporary workers were setting up the venue. Lynch watched a group of young men.

Richard, Wood, and others had been promoted to common sales managers. Behind each were nervous young recruits.

These recruits were hired from the employment center with no base salary, insurance, or guarantees—not even official employees of the Interstellar Trading Company.

To avoid legal issues, these young men were Lynch’s partners — self-funded collaborators, not employees. Thus, Lynch had no real employer responsibilities.

This solved minor problems and avoided related troubles.

Of course, Lynch planned to address these later—but not now.

Thanks to Monday’s newspaper, these young men had been easy to find at the employment center.

Lynch told Richard that a good salesperson had to be outgoing, passionate, well-spoken, and shameless enough.

He even heard that Richard made some chosen recruits kneel and polish his shoes during interviews.

Richard was shameless, but undeniably the best candidate Lynch had found to be a sales elite, slowly mastering the industry’s essence.

Compared to Richard’s cunning, Wood was luckier. He quickly gathered a group who looked a bit dull and useless, but that was fine.

Wood was still young, the same age as Richard—no joke. Reality was irritating but real.Putting aside this minor issue, Wood’s youth gave him more chances to make mistakes. Even if he slipped up this time, he could still correct himself quickly—if he was willing to keep moving forward on the path to wealth.

Others had also recruited some candidates, completing Lynch’s first assigned targets.

Recruiting wasn’t easy. They had to buy their seats. Of the 5,000 seats, 3,900 were sold at five Sol each to these salesmen, leaving only 1,100 otherwise.

In other words, becoming Lynch’s partner came with no reliable guarantees or protections, and they paid upfront costs ranging from a couple hundred to as much as three to five hundred Sol.

Not everyone in this era had that kind of courage. That’s why Lynch praised this first group. Regardless of their results, they had mastered some sales tactics and won trust—a difficult but crucial first step.

As their boss, Lynch felt the need to rally them.

Just as he was about to speak, Richard and Wood pulled out notebooks, and others followed suit with theirs.

Lynch was both amused and exasperated. He had only planned to say a few words, but now he’d have to give them another lesson—especially considering the 20,000 Sol he was about to earn from selling seats.

He had already decided on the topic: Increasing Customer Initiative.