The Wolf of Los Angeles.

West of Beverly Hills, Los Angeles Country Club.

Edward drove a Mercedes-Benz into the parking lot in front of the door.

Hawke got out of the car and found a large crowd gathered at the door of the restaurant on one side of the club.

"It looks like someone from an environmental protection organization." Edward jumped to a high place, looked over there, and then came down to say to Hawke, "It's someone from the Sierra Club, protesting against the club restaurant's consumption of smelt."

Hawke had been to the country club before and had eaten smelt in the restaurant, or rather, capelin, as it was called in the restaurant.

He said: "The smelt here is imported from Germany. It is said to be an important economic fish in Germany."

Edward watched for a while, followed Hawke from behind, and said, "These crazy environmentalists are terrible."

Hawke said as he walked, "Because there are sponsors behind them, these people don't have to do other jobs. The money they earn from environmental riots is more than their normal jobs. If they have no income, like the homeless, they will have trouble eating. Who would have the energy to do these things?"

Mary Ferguson got out of the car next to her and looked at Hawke: "Well said."

Hawke saw her car and said what Mary wanted to hear: "Environmental protection is essentially a tool for domestic and international competition."

Mary accompanied Hawke all the way inside the club: "It's rare for someone your age to be able to see clearly what's hidden behind environmental protection."

Hawke pointed to the Sierra Club protesters and said, "Organizations like them enjoy subsidies from the Donkey Party in North America and from the Agency for International Development internationally. Is that right?"

Mary said, "Not only that, the Elephant Party also subsidizes them. These people are like a knife, and whoever holds it in their hands can use it, just like what you and Brian did recently."

She knows more: "There is no need to talk about the International Development Agency. Environmental protection and carbon emissions have always been good tools to curb the rise of other backward countries. The United States has led the formulation of environmental protection rules as a threshold for entry. Other countries cannot enter the European and American markets if they cannot meet this line."

Hawke is no stranger to these: “Sure enough, the most famous thing about the International Development Agency is remote animal husbandry.”

Mary didn't understand: "Animal husbandry?"

"Raising a dog to bite people?" Hawke explained simply: "For example, environmentalists in other regions take money from the International Development Agency, take environmental protection and care of the earth as their mission, and hinder the development of their regions."

Mary said, “That’s a very close analogy.”

The three of them went into the country club together, picked up the golf club sets stored there, and drove to the golf course in an electric car.

When I arrived at the teeing area, Peter Thiel was already waiting there.

In addition to Peter, there is also a tall, fat white man here.

Hawke knew this guy, Peter Thiel's former entrepreneurial partner, named Elon Musk.

The latter is a social expert. He didn't need Thiel's introduction. When he saw Hawke, he took the initiative to shake his hand and said, "You are the new idol of everyone in Silicon Valley now."

Hawke shook his hand and said, "Is it that exaggerated?"

"The truth is even more exaggerated than you think." Musk did not hesitate to praise: "Twitter is now truly the number one social media on the Internet."

This guy is a typical smiling man with a dagger hidden in his heart. Hawke became alert, not knowing what Musk's intention was.

Musk greeted Mary warmly again.

The four of them entered the teeing area together, with Mary hitting the ball first, and then they each swung.

Except for Peter Thiel who has slightly better skills, the other three, including Hawke, are just able to play at best.

But the social attributes of golf far exceed the sport itself.

Several players haven't even finished a hole yet, but their attention is no longer on the ball.

Because Musk was sitting on an electric car on the golf course, he talked about the electric car: "When I came, I happened to see environmentalists protesting. At first I thought they were protesting against the waste on the golf course."

Peter Thiel said: "It is said that the country club uses as much water in a year as all the residents of Los Angeles combined."

Hawke interjected, “I suddenly remembered that when I was studying in Wyoming, many organizations promoted water conservation.”

Musk laughed: "If ordinary people don't save, how can we be extravagant?"

This made so much sense that the other three people all agreed with it.

Musk brought the topic back to the topic that had gone off track: "Environmentalism is prevalent now. I estimate that in the next few decades, this will still be a topic of concern to the whole world, and environmental protection will become more deeply rooted in people's hearts."

He patted the electric car under the seat and said, "Electric cars will have a huge market." Hawke understood immediately and said casually, "Are you going to invest in electric cars?"

"That's right." Musk said seriously, "My goal this year is to invest in an electric car company."

Mary said softly, "You didn't come here to play golf, you came here to attract investment."

At this point, Musk certainly would not deny: "It's not just investment, but also the platform resources you have."

He further said: "For pure investment, I can ask for a bank loan, and it is not difficult to get tens of millions of dollars, but financing is never just about money, but also about resources to promote development."

Peter Thiel had worked with Musk before and knew his style: “You’re going to hype up the concept of electric cars?”

Musk looked at Hawke with a burning gaze: "Twitter is now the most influential media on the entire Internet. Its users are the people who are most receptive to new things and new concepts. According to my market research, this is also the largest customer group for electric vehicles in the future."

Hawke naturally knows that customers who use the Internet more frequently are more receptive to electric vehicles.

"I can assure you that if you invest in electric cars today, you will get more than ten times the return in the future." Musk's main target today is Hawke, and his voice is full of sincerity: "This is a sunrise industry, representing the future development trend of automobiles. It will not only reduce fuel emissions, but also reduce noise pollution. Its environmental protection, economy and driving experience are far superior to today's fuel vehicles."

Mary is the oldest and knows the least about this industry. She asked, "Car manufacturing is a system engineering project. From chassis to gearbox to vehicle control system, it requires a certain amount of experience."

Musk said with a smile: "Electric vehicles are a completely different track, and the requirements for these technologies are not as high."

Peter Thiel responded: “If it was a traditional car manufacturing industry, I wouldn’t even look at it and would just drive Elon away.”

There was a rest area ahead, so Musk simply asked the driver to drive the electric four-wheeler over there.

The four of them entered the rest area, ordered a drink each, and sat under a large parasol to talk.

Musk's focus today was on Hawke: "Electric cars are more than that. In my imagination, electric cars will be able to interact with the Internet in the future. Take Twitter for example. It is entirely possible to use it in the car. While driving, users can achieve car-network linkage through voice or other means."

Others might not agree with this, but Hawke knew very well that these would be achieved soon.

Musk continued: "Intelligence is also the future development direction. Electric vehicles are linked to the Internet, and artificial intelligence will play a key role. This is also the future development trend of the Internet."

Hawke nodded: "You are right. AI is a key component of Twitter's development plan for the second half of the year."

Musk immediately said: "We can cooperate. This will be a model for the joint development of the Internet and electric vehicles."

He has been investigating an electric car company since last year. He strongly disagrees with the company's outdated car-making concept and believes that the future of electric vehicles lies in networking and intelligence.

In this regard, Musk thought of Twitter first because of his former partner Peter Thiel.

In fact, he has a close personal relationship with the two founders of Google, but in terms of social interactivity, Twitter is better than Google.

Its more than 4000 million active users worldwide also make him salivate.

If electric cars want to succeed, they must be marketed, and Twitter is the best Internet marketing platform.

Musk’s planning makes him the core of marketing.

Hawke didn't need to guess to know that for Musk, Twitter not only involves cooperation on the network level, but also on the marketing level.

He is one of the best marketing masters in the United States after Steve Jobs.

He even attracted a lot of crazy fans who worshipped him like a god.

Mary Ferguson was not very knowledgeable about things like the Internet. She remained silent and just kept watching Hawke's attitude.

Hawke asked Musk: "Are you going to start a new car company or buy one?"

Musk detailed: "I started investigating last year. Martin Ehud, a famous electrical engineer, and Mark Tarpenning, a computer expert, founded an electric car company called Tesla in July last year. But they thought that building cars was too simple and they were seriously short of funds, so they invited me to invest."

He picked up the drink cup and raised it to the other three people: "In February, I put forward conditions to them. They can invest, but I must control Tesla, serve as chairman, and have the final say on all matters."

Peter Thiel interjected: "Like Hawke, you have a strong desire for control over the company."

"Because we have to make sure the company stays together and moves forward, rather than falling apart on the road of internal friction," Hawke said.

"Well said." Musk fully agreed. He pointed at Peter Thiel and said to Hawke, "The two founders of Tesla accepted my conditions. I met this guy in February and thought of Twitter. He also talked about you. I think the car made by Tesla must be an epoch-making product. To achieve this condition, car-network linkage is necessary, and Twitter is the most suitable partner."

Hawke is right: "In terms of human-online interaction, Twitter is the best among all Internet companies." (End of this chapter)