Preface: Master Chi sincerely hopes this article reaches as few readers as possible.
Anyone who clicked on this title is either currently — or has previously been — going through a period of adversity. Whether you’ve fallen in business, lost everything in investments, or been cast aside by the times, left behind by the platforms you once depended on — this article was written for you.
Because only those who have lost something want to reclaim it. Because only those who have been pushed back want to make a comeback.
So, from the heart: I hope you recover your strength soon. Regroup and rally. Let us weather the cold season of fate together.
P.S. This article is not for public sharing — it’s meant to be quietly forwarded to that one friend in your life who is going through a rough patch. A silent gesture of encouragement. When a person is down and out, your support means everything.
The Article:
I waited three years — just for one chance. I want to prove something, not because I think I’m great. I just want to prove that what I lost — I will take it back.
Those lines come from the classic film A Better Tomorrow.
Master Chi borrows them here, to send to you — wherever you are, in whatever valley you find yourself.
And at the same time, I want to tell you: even though we’ve never met, I don’t know your name, I know nothing of your life story, and I’ve never even seen your destiny chart (命盘) —
Master Chi is absolutely certain: what belongs to you will come back to you.
I have no doubt.
Because you need to understand: the measure of a person’s life — success or failure — comes down to ability, talent, timing, and fortune.
Fate itself is made up of countless passages and undulations. That means no matter how brilliant, how hardworking, how exceptional you are — you will inevitably face both tailwinds and headwinds.
You cannot refuse them. You cannot summon them on demand.
Just look at the business titans you admire, the luminaries of the arts, the great figures of history. How many of them didn’t walk a road soaked in blood and sweat, fortune and misfortune intertwined? How many haven’t experienced a catastrophic fall — only to take stock, pick themselves up, and come roaring back?
Yes: life cannot be lived without failure — unless you never attempt anything at all. And only those who attempt nothing have no enterprise to lose. Isn’t that right?
Especially having witnessed so many lives unravel, Master Chi firmly believes: many of the failures you’ve endured are, in their own way, a form of accumulation.
Let me speak from personal experience. When I was young, I achieved a certain level of success and recognition in other fields. I was riding high — confident, full of spring.
But what does early success really mean? After all the exchanges we’ve had through these articles, you know the saying: “The winds of youth don’t last; it is the evening breeze that soothes the most.”
When you’re on a winning streak, you will always — always — believe it’s all because you outfought everyone. You fought heaven, you fought earth, you fought men — and you won. You felt invincible, like the Victorious Fighting Buddha himself, as if you could stay sharp and fierce forever.
Sure. You’re the tough one. You think you’re unstoppable?
Fate — that crafty thing — will see exactly that. It will keep piling good news on good news, fortune upon fortune.
And then, right when you’re at your most self-satisfied, it will shove you off the peak and let you crash — hard enough to leave you unable to care for yourself.
Looking back now, every one of those early victories was like drinking poison to quench thirst, eating toxins to fill your belly. They didn’t accumulate a single drop of genuine depth. They only ensured that when the fall came, I carried far more pressure and pain than I otherwise would have.
And sure enough — no surprise — after briefly touching that small cloud, I plunged into a massive, sheer-drop collapse.
Those years were full of blows, wound after wound. There were moments I genuinely thought I would never rise again. The suffocation, the embarrassment, the anxiety, the unease — they filled every single second of those years. If you’re in the valley right now, you know exactly what I mean. Truly: unable to eat, unable to sleep.
But as things passed, and as I clawed my way out — bit by bit — and looked back, I found that the “bitter work” of those years had become my greatest treasure.
That treasure is this: you finally get to observe the world from the perspective of someone who has failed — a defeated underdog. And it’s a vantage point you have never had before.
You see, when everything is going your way, you are utterly blind and deaf — because your ego has swollen. And worse, those brief achievements make you feel like you actually earned the right to that swollen ego.
There’s no such thing as surveying all the mountains from above. The truth is, near and far, high and low — everything looks different depending on where you stand.
Some things cannot be seen clearly from the summit of self-satisfaction. Some things can only be seen clearly when your face is being pushed into the mud.
Seen that way, the lowest point of your life is — paradoxically — the most refining, the most reflective, the most important season of all.
Only after your fall will you see clearly how the achievements you once built crumbled apart. You’ll realize how blind, how arrogant, how short-sighted you were back then.
Only after your fall will you see through all those so-called friends, connections, and circles — how transactional and self-serving they truly were. And you’ll understand: the family members, lovers, true friends, and noble benefactors (贵人, Gui Ren) around you — those are the people you should have been cherishing all along.
Most importantly of all: only after your fall will you finally understand what your real limits and genuine capabilities are. What is that core — refined and precise — that is uniquely yours, that can truly anchor your life and become the frontier of your expansion?
Do not underestimate those three paragraphs. As you know, Master Chi doesn’t have a vast circle — but it’s not small either. Within it, there are plenty who have lived through dramatic reversals of fortune. You probably know someone like that too. You may even be that person yourself. If so, every word of this will land even deeper.
And so, having said all that, I want to offer five pieces of guidance for whoever is in the valley right now.
These five are not about what you should do. They are about what you shouldn’t. Let me take them one by one.
1. Don’t Be Afraid#
Anyone who has been through a great collapse carries one particular terror deep in their bones:
“I’m not as strong as I thought.”
Whether you’ve run your own enterprise, made investments, or built your name in a certain world — once you’ve lived through that one Great Defeat, the blow will shake you to your core.
Some people are completely destroyed by it. Not physically disabled — but mentally stripped of all drive and will to fight.
No one who hasn’t lived it can claim to understand this.
Because here’s the truth: in the wake of great failure, the loss of capital and resources isn’t the deepest wound.
The deepest wound is the plunge into profound, all-consuming self-doubt.
Are my instincts sound? Is my judgment reliable? Is my framework solid? Are my connections trustworthy?
All of it converges on one final, unspeakable question: “Am I still capable of anything?”
Don’t underestimate this. It will never haunt the average person — because they carry no great burden to begin with. But for those who are genuinely building something, genuinely trying to conquer territory — this becomes a devastating inner demon.
Otherwise, why do you think so many powerful figures, after just one major setback, choose to quietly retire? It’s not that they can no longer fight. It’s that they no longer trust themselves.
But — Master Chi wants to tell you: don’t be afraid. Truly, don’t be afraid.
Of all the destiny charts I’ve read, there has never — not once — been a truly capable person who escaped the crucible and the refining fire. Not one.
Certain abilities and wisdom can only be forged in the flames. There is no other place.
So treat every failure and hardship as a class that life has handed you — a bloody, raw, hard-won lesson. A trial you were meant to survive. They are painful. But they are never fatal.
And after you’ve walked through that fire, you are still you. You still carry your skills and your abilities. Plus, the inferno has given you something extra: eyes that see through illusion, bones made of iron, skin made of steel.
The truth is, you have become stronger, wiser, more seasoned. All you need to do is lift your spirits once more — and you will absolutely carve open a new world.
2. Don’t Panic#
Hardship and setbacks can sometimes be like a stubborn skin condition — difficult to fully shake, difficult to completely cure.
Even as you gradually move into a new phase of life, some old problems and grudges will follow you like a shadow. And so many people begin to panic, reaching for instinctive reactions, trying to break free.
Don’t panic. Look around — has anyone who truly made something of themselves ever walked away spotless? Even in academia, the domain most removed from profit, how many people can genuinely say they lived a flawless, unblemished life?
Learn to give yourself time. Learn to give the past time. Especially the tangled, messy affairs — don’t always try to resolve them through confrontation.
The more aggressive you become, the more insurmountable those obstacles feel. Days pass, time flies — and you find yourself still stuck at the same point, not an inch forward.
Take debt, for example. Learn to address it proactively — not reactively. Sincerely explain your current situation to those you owe. At the same time, genuinely convey your opportunities and your ability to repay.
Trust me: many of the people at the heart of old, lingering grievances were once the very people who trusted and cared for you most. The reason they no longer show goodwill is often your own resistance and opposition.
Learn to let time settle and dissolve things. Once the heat has passed, restart fresh with a new approach. This is the move that countless seasoned veterans of life have mastered.
Never let panic breed irritability, or irritability breed resentment. That path only ensures you remain trapped in the past, unable to take a single new step.
In destiny reading (命理) terms: “Long entangled in old karmic debts, you’ll never open new horizons.”
3. Don’t Rush#
When you’re cooking and the oil in the pan catches fire — a column of flame shooting up — what do you do?
Do you dump a bucket of water on it?
No. Stay calm. Find a cloth. Dampen it. Cover the pan. Put the lid on. Cut off the air supply.
The same is true when life spirals out of control. Whatever you do — do not let urgency drive you into desperate, reckless countermeasures.
What you need to do first is hold steady. For small matters, pause and breathe for a moment. For major matters, hold steady for months. Neither is the wrong move.
Especially if you’ve been through a major defeat: go back and review it carefully, and you’ll have a sudden realization — in every collapse where things fell apart like a mountain crumbling, the events you thought were the root cause were usually just small pieces of a larger unraveling.
The unstoppable avalanche that followed? Much of it was made far worse by panicked decisions made in the heat of the moment. One bad call piled on another until everything collapsed completely.
Why do young people spiral when things go wrong, while seasoned veterans don’t move a muscle?
Because the veterans know: no great move comes from haste; composure is where the odds turn.
Two years ago, I watched a senior figure I deeply respect return from obscurity — past fifty years old. By all accounts, you’d expect him to be either quietly retiring or anxious. Neither.
He moved without urgency, without agitation. He went through every old friend, every old ally — reconnecting, rekindling bonds, reweaving the fabric of relationships. He listened to everyone’s news, their small issues, their opinions.
Within no time, he had rewoven his entire resource network. In barely a year and a half, he had quietly, unmistakably returned to something approaching the stature of his prime.
It couldn’t match the absolute peak, of course. But the road is never truly closed — as long as you don’t lose your head and go off the wrong path.
And I’ll say it again: what’s the rush?
Your capability, your breadth of character, your vision, your wisdom — these things are yours for life. They cannot be taken from you.
How is it that you were once so composed and unflappable — yet now you’ve somehow become less than you used to be?
4. Don’t Be Arrogant#
The times have changed. Truly, they have.
The rules of the game — across finance, commerce, and every other domain — are completely different from what they once were. Literally, transforming day by day.
This means: what used to work for you, what used to be achievable — today, it may simply no longer be possible.
As I said at the beginning: the reason a person falls is precisely because they once rose.
But that past success becomes the easiest thing in the world to crystallize into a meaningless ledger of past glories that you just can’t stop clutching.
Think about it — isn’t that exactly the problem with the people around you who once commanded the world, then faded into the crowd? Forever talking about the old days, reliving the past — a ledger of accomplishments from their thirties, still being recited at sixty.
This is the other great inner poison. Arrogance.
At the root of it all: you fell because the old playbook no longer works. So no matter how dominant you were in the past — lift your head, look up, and take in the new world.
This is the thing Master Chi finds most difficult. Why?
Because humans are social creatures. The reason so many people can’t escape old patterns is that their entire surroundings are filled with people from the old era. So they all marinate together in the past, completely unaware that the world has already become the domain of a new generation — people twenty or thirty years old who’ve never heard of the old rules.
Truly: in front of others, arrogance can sometimes function as a posture, a kind of presence.
But toward yourself, arrogance is nothing but stagnation and delusion.
If a man reaches seventy and still carries a spine of pride, you and I might even admire it. But if a man of forty or fifty is overflowing with arrogance — that’s basically the ceiling of his life right there.
Because arrogance becomes a cage. It locks you in place, unable to advance a single step — until you’re crushed by a new generation, or discarded by a new era.
5. Don’t Act Chaotically#
In my practice, the friends who come to me are almost always coming because something has gone wrong. Otherwise, who seeks out a destiny reading (命理)?
Sometimes when friends come to me with problems, I’m not in a hurry to look at their destiny chart (命盘) right away. First, I let them tell me the full picture.
One reason: you may be able to offer rational, practical guidance simply from lived experience and your own judgment. Another reason: only after understanding the complete picture can you make a truly accurate assessment.
But here’s the thing — when a person is in the valley and chaos has set in, something specific happens.
First, understand this: any endeavor is most smoothly built when started from a clean, clear slate. Romance, career, investments — all of them. Starting fresh is always easiest.
But some people love throwing themselves into chaos, trying to win from within the disorder. That’s not wrong — it’s a gift, a product of their destiny framework (格局). Heaven gave them that talent. Some people genuinely have that ability.
But for you — Master Chi still advises: don’t let things begin in chaos, and don’t let a crisis end in chaos.
What does that mean?
Even if the sky is falling — give yourself the time to understand exactly what in the hell is going on. Don’t try to tackle every problem at once in a single desperate surge.
Think about it — Master Chi has been through difficult times, and so have you. Think carefully: no matter how enormous a situation is, good or bad, isn’t there always one central thread running through it?
Yes — that thread. As long as it holds, everything else can follow. But if you neglect or forget that central thread in the chaos — that is the real problem. That is where all disasters begin.
The same principle applies when you’re in a losing position. The one thing to do is find that central thread:
Right now, is my state and my fortune (运势) in good shape? If both are poor — don’t rush to expand. Otherwise you’ll be putting out one fire only to start another.
Am I the main character in this situation? If yes — how do I marshal the most favorable resources to help me in this comeback? If no — how do I pick a side? How do I weigh the pros and cons? Should I go all in?
What am I lacking in this arena? What can I borrow or leverage? In this process, can I ride someone else’s wind and use it to grow?
Don’t act chaotically. Do not, under any circumstances, act chaotically.
Remember: life is a game — like chess, like cards, like your destiny framework (格局) itself. Ultimately, it comes down to playing your own rhythm and tempo.
Chaos is the root of all evils. Because mistakes can be corrected. Chaos requires a long, long time to repair and rebalance.
A Closing Aside
Here’s a little digression.
In many branches of Chinese metaphysics (玄学), the palace of career and status is always placed in direct correspondence with the palace of romance and family. At their root, the two are inseparable — born from each other, accompanying each other.
Why do so many women fail to understand: TV dramas always show that the more successful a woman is in her career, the lonelier and more unfortunate her family life? Yet in real life, the more professionally accomplished a woman is, the more likely she is to enjoy both a thriving career and a happy marriage?
It’s simple. A strong career naturally draws you into a better circle of people. And a better circle dramatically increases the odds of meeting a partner who is willing to build a life with you — steadily, faithfully, together.
On the flip side, the more a woman lacks, the more likely she is to end up with the wrong person. Those without much to offer rarely rise far — they settle at the bottom, and there they are most likely to encounter others in the same position.
Simple enough?
And what about men?
The saying “a virtuous wife means fewer disasters for her husband” is absolutely not an old cliché — absolutely not.
Yes, men go out and conquer the world. But a truly high-caliber woman never just keeps the home fires burning.
What role does a great woman play? One kind, which Master Chi has spoken of before, is the woman who commands her own domain — the Feng (phoenix) and She (serpent) combined: powerful and sovereign in her own right.
But there is another kind — one Master Chi mentioned in passing but never fully explored: “the Crane’s Grace” (鹤贤) — the wise, warmhearted woman.
She strategizes for her man. She steadies his mind and calms his spirit. She lays out the board and sets the plan.
She is, while he wages battles abroad, the wisest counselor holding down the fort at home.
(The Phoenix, the Serpent, and the Crane — all three are one-in-a-hundred calibers of person, and even then, they must be shaped further by the trials of the world. This subject deserves its own article, someday.)