End of year — I’d rather not write something overly complicated. Everyone’s getting ready for the New Year; who wants to strain their brain over dense, cryptic content?
But this Year of the Water Rabbit (Gui Mao, 2023) — it truly matters.
As the crossroads between breaking down and building anew after the great pandemic, it will mark a turning point in the destiny of many. Years from now, when you’ve made something of yourself, you’ll find yourself suddenly realizing: the year your fortunes turned was right here, right now — 2023, the Year of the Water Rabbit.
The specific reasons are a bit delicate to explain in full; I’ll attach them to the upcoming Chinese zodiac breakdowns. But I’ve taken special care to write this genuinely valuable summary for you — refined and distilled into this single article.
I promise that once you’ve read it, everything will click. You’ll know clearly how to adjust your direction in the coming year, so you can become prosperous, smooth, and full of wealth and blessings.
1 — Whether in the Year of the Water Rabbit ahead or every year to come, I want you to hold onto this firmly: 99% of the problems in your ordinary life — no matter how large or dangerous — can actually be swept away with ease by wealth.
As long as your main career is stable, your side business is running smoothly, and your assets are solid, even without becoming enormously rich, your level of happiness in this life will be startling.
Even if the sky falls, as long as your financial foundation isn’t damaged, you still have room to maneuver and find your way through.
Let me speak from the heart: the pandemic chapter is closing. Going forward, you truly need to focus your energy and push hard to clear your path to wealth.
When the path to wealth opens, every path opens.
The moment your net worth rises, your social resources expand to match. You’ll suddenly find that many things money couldn’t previously buy are now smiling at you.
Sometimes, one person’s word can save your parents in a moment of scarcity. A casual recommendation can bind your child’s future to a top school.
And for yourself — when you face injustice or someone making things difficult, you’ll be able to find ways to protect your dignity. You won’t have to capitulate like a pushover and then convince yourself you “don’t hold grudges.”
So remember this from me: “It’s 2023. The greatest resistance has passed. It’s time to start making money.”
2 — Why have I never had much regard for pure white-collar workers as a group? Not out of professional bias — but because this group is, in essence, among the least hopeful.
They earn income that is tolerable but far from abundant. And because they spend their days confined to cubicles, their capabilities, vision, and networks are equally thin.
So if you are a white-collar worker, hear this wake-up call clearly: guess what fate awaits you if you keep grinding away in that cubicle indefinitely?
No matter how good the natural talents or destiny chart (mìng pán) the heavens gave you, you’ll never have the chance to use them — because your precious years are being swallowed whole by that cubicle.
That’s precisely why I’ve consistently encouraged white-collar workers — and women living in closed-off environments — to absolutely develop a side business, to take that first step toward working for themselves.
It creates an opening for you to reach outward. It gives you the experience of building something from scratch.
Whether or not the side business makes money isn’t necessarily the most important thing. What matters is that the process clearly reveals your own strengths and weaknesses.
Are you genuinely a talent going unrecognized? Or is your ability actually insufficient? Reality delivers two hard slaps, and you’ll know the answer in an instant.
Remember my second point: “Starting in 2023, the path of pure white-collar work tied to a company’s trajectory is a path destined to keep you from building wealth — and sooner or later, you’ll be left behind. It’s time to plan your own next move.”
3 — Not long ago, a mother left me a message saying my articles had changed her son’s mindset — he now talks constantly about building a side business and making money.
So today, I’ll use this article to speak to him, and to you, about the symbiotic relationship between main career, side business, and assets.
▶ Your main career is absolutely the backbone of your development — the most fundamental infrastructure, and it cannot be abandoned.
My requirement for your main career is simple: the growth trajectory must be broad. Income doesn’t need to be high right now, but there must be a clear upward path.
That upward channel will give back to you in many forms — a wider perspective, an increasingly reliable and high-quality network, and broad social resources.
Stability matters too. Large enterprises, big companies, major platforms — these are all meaningful advantages.
Your main career is the trunk of your wealth tree. With it, you have the foundation to grow a thriving side business.
▶ Your side business is the wild grass that feeds the horse — windfall income that adds real abundance to your life.
A white-collar worker, for example, might run two or three community group-buy operations each day beyond their salary, earning an extra 400–500 RMB daily. A professional might legally monetize their expertise beyond their standard deliverables, netting an additional tens of thousands on a single case.
Note: I personally believe this era no longer requires large upfront investment to launch a side business. A few thousand RMB for equipment at most — that’s it. The only remaining requirement is your time, which you might think is worthless.
But don’t underestimate it. These hours are like seeds. At first they seem almost invisible. But accumulate them in units of thousands — even tens of thousands — of hours, and they will create miracles.
Objectively speaking: if you genuinely build, study, and invest tens of thousands of hours into a side business or personal brand, at the absolute minimum, you’ll be earning tens of thousands of RMB per month. At minimum.
Give me one good reason why you’re still procrastinating.
So the third point: “Your main career is the foot that keeps you planted. Your side business is the foot reaching forward. When these two feet work in sync, your life is destined to keep moving forward — steadily, step by step.”
4 — Without quite noticing, this article has grown a bit long. Time for a final summary.
Overall, 2023 — while the surface-level negativity will be considerably less than before — will still be a demanding year.
Precisely because it will still be demanding, you need to plan early, prepare early, and carve out a financial lifeline well in advance.
Especially if you notice your industry clearly shows the “three unloved” pattern — no meaningful interest or investment from state capital, private enterprise, or foreign capital — then you need to move fast: change jobs, switch industries, launch a side business.
That said, 2023 will still be better than 2021 and 2022. Because under seismic shifts in the era, massive personal wealth and opportunity will inevitably appear in unexpected corners.
Just as you’d never imagine that right now, in the deep freeze of the property transaction market, home renovation and refurbishment businesses are absolutely thriving.
A woman I know, working as an independent interior designer, quietly made a tidy sum in the second half of 2022. Taking advantage of low property prices, she traded up and moved into a 120-square-meter upgraded apartment.
This was a sum she could never have earned as a pure white-collar employee.
Her side business started in 2022. By connecting all three phases — design, procurement, and renovation — she clears around 60,000 RMB net on a 300,000 RMB full-service project.
Today, she reliably handles at least three such projects per month. That is what evolution looks like.
And yet — could you have imagined that just a year and a half ago, in 2021, she was a white-collar mom working herself to exhaustion, mocked and pressured by her boss, earning just 130,000 RMB a year?
I remember when this young renovation specialist came to have her destiny chart read. She’d worked up her courage, carrying the mindset of: “If there truly is no wealth fortune (cái yùn), then I’ll accept a hard life.”
But when I looked at her chart — remarkable.
The Tai Yin star (the lunar luminary, associated with femininity, commerce, and artistic sensibility) was positioned in her life palace, enhanced by the Hua Ke transformation — a star of reputation and refinement. Born to run her own business.
I told her with confidence: “Young woman, push yourself boldly. Take private clients. Share your work. Build your audience. Good things will come.”
And sure enough — in the span of one year, everything transformed.
Ah, life’s road is unpredictable like that. Especially when you’ve been suppressed by your environment and never had a real chance to show what you’re truly capable of.
You just don’t know yet: this wealth fortune could belong to you too.