Just a few casual thoughts tonight — I’ve just walked out of a dinner with distinguished guests and honestly don’t have the energy for a proper long piece.
But the driver was smooth on the road, and watching the city lights glitter like colored glass outside the window, with a slight wine-warmth in my chest, certain truths feel easier to say out loud:
1 — You must hold the times in reverence. No matter how exceptional your personal abilities, they are nothing compared to the immense force of the era you live in.
And right now, the message of our times is clear: don’t stir up trouble, don’t make mistakes, the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. The wise person quietly deepens their own abilities and waits for the right opening.
2 — Growing and rising in the world is, at its core, an extremely simple thing.
It comes down to this: constantly seek out people who are more capable and have already produced results, put yourself in their orbit, benchmark yourself against their strengths, and then walk that path without wavering.
It sounds simple — yet 99.99% of people never manage it. But you can.
3 — Scheming, cunning, and slippery charm may help you gain small advantages in many situations. You might even ride that approach through an entire lifetime.
But true big opportunities, true great wealth — these will only ever land in the hands of those who sustain honesty, reliability, kindness, and hard work over the long term.
4 — The greatest mistake a person can make in this life is not offending the wrong person, saying the wrong thing, or doing the wrong thing.
It is this: in the excessive pursuit of perfection — terrified of causing trouble — you spend your whole life trembling in fear, nothing ever gets done, and your life pattern (格局) and fortune are both completely squandered by your own hand.
5 — In this lifetime of yours, the first gate is chasing quick gains; the second is pride and arrogance; the third is sudden catastrophe; the fourth is isolation with no one to turn to; the fifth is learning to observe the world with cold clarity; the sixth is becoming like water — yielding yet unstoppable; the seventh is finally grasping your heavenly mandate.
Master Chi hopes you pass through every gate, no matter how hard — that your light boat sails through ten thousand mountains in the end.
6 — In this life, you must dare to reshuffle your own cards.
The greatest mistake many people make is clinging to an awkward, losing hand — sighing, lamenting, unable to let go.
Anyone who carries on like that is destined to amount to nothing.
If you are past thirty and still drifting through your days in a fog, the time has come to make the decision to reshuffle. You cannot keep delaying.
A circle that holds you back, a dead-end job, a chaotic marriage — if you walk away from these, you can fight your way back to better versions of all of them.
Remember this: your life will not improve because the bad people and situations naturally drift away from you.
Only by becoming sharper, clearer, and ruthlessly discerning — on your own terms — can you open a new chapter.
Seven points in total. I hope at least one of them lands.