Student Question
Master, how does one figure out what they’re truly suited to do?
A long time ago, my parents had someone do a reading for me. They mentioned something about a Lianzhen destiny palace — I didn’t really understand it at the time, only that I was told I’m suited for focused, technical work. But in my own mind, I feel like I need to start a business to change my family’s circumstances, and my heart just won’t settle. I’ve been learning in Master Chi’s community and making progress. I hope to accumulate enough to eventually arrange a one-on-one consultation with you.
Master Chi’s Response
Wanting to start a business to change your family’s circumstances — that’s a worthy aspiration. But you need to build a proper foundation first. This comes down to two main areas.
The first thing to do is raise your energy — which means calming the mind.
You cannot be restless. To quiet the mind, you must first settle the body. Don’t be in constant motion. Find a quiet place, sit down, close your eyes, and allow yourself to fully relax. When the body settles, the mind follows — and from that stillness, your thinking will begin to move in a clear direction. That is how genuine ambition is nurtured.
Right now, your heart won’t settle. This affects you in two ways.
The first is in how you work.
Why can’t you settle? Because you have too many ideas. When it comes to making money, you might have a dozen different schemes — but any one person has limited time, energy, and resources. When you want to do too many things at once, what tends to happen is this: you get very close to actually earning something, and then lose the opportunity over one or two small missteps. So at the level of doing, you need to gradually focus on a single domain and build real depth there.
The second is in the people you attract.
To accomplish anything — especially something significant — you will need help from others. A person who cultivates genuine ambition can see through someone who doesn’t, in an instant. That is knowing people. But a person who hasn’t cultivated ambition will meet another just like them, fail to see it, and even mistake them for a kindred spirit. That is not knowing people.
So raising your energy has two benefits: in your work, it lets you go deep in one field and build something real; in your relationships, it helps you gradually outgrow your current circle and connect with people at a higher level.
The second area is choosing between a side hustle and full entrepreneurship — based on your actual conditions.
1. Your question didn’t go into much detail about your current situation. But from what you’ve shared, this stage is not yet right for full entrepreneurship — unless a clear opportunity presents itself. In the meantime, use a low-cost approach to test things: start a side hustle that aligns with the direction you eventually want to build toward.
Work it in parallel. In the process, you’ll develop a much deeper understanding of how to find clients, build a product, and close deals. And when you actually start earning from it, your capabilities will have grown — which will be a tremendous asset when you do eventually launch something.
2. One particularly effective method here: imitate peers in your space.
Once you’ve chosen a side hustle direction, your first move is to follow a lot of people already doing it. Follow accounts on Weibo and Xiaohongshu. Add a few peers on WeChat every day.
This process does two things: it opens up your thinking so you’re not trapped inside your own perspective, and it lets you observe their methods and see which ones fit you. Then you act — test what actually works — and optimize from there.
3. This also comes back to a core principle of entrepreneurship: never make a blind move in an industry or market you don’t understand.
And once you do understand it, don’t ignore the market and your customers. Adjust based on their feedback. This is one of the most common mistakes early-stage entrepreneurs make — discovering that the need they identified was never real, or that the market isn’t nearly as large as they imagined, or watching customer growth stall after a few months.
I see this among college students too. Their major may not align with where they actually want to go, and they don’t know what to do next.
My advice for students in that position: start with Xiaohongshu. Try selling something. In that process, you accumulate real experience — how to drive traffic, how to close — while also building a customer base. Along the way, your copywriting, writing ability, and skill at working with clients will all improve. And gradually, you’ll come to understand what you’re actually good at and what genuinely excites you. That clarity becomes the foundation for a better choice.