…is actually not that hard at all.
I have a very good childhood friend from primary school — though we’re both middle-aged men now, I’ve watched him walk a genuinely inspiring and straightforward road in life.
This friend is an interesting case. Because his grades weren’t great, he stopped studying after vocational high school and threw himself entirely into running small businesses.
It started with renting out martial arts novels, VHS tapes, and CDs. Then came an internet café, then a bar, and now he runs a chain of optical stores. All along, he’s been on a slow but steady upward climb.
I once asked him whether he’d faced any major setbacks or risks along the way. He just shrugged and said, “Not really — my parents and wife have always been supportive.”
Since we know each other well, I know that this “support” wasn’t just talk. His whole family genuinely pooled their energy behind him.
In the early days of his business, his parents would quietly cook meals at home every day, then spend their free time helping him watch the shop — freeing him up to handle buying and selling trips without needing to hire extra staff.
After he got married, his wife taught herself bookkeeping and kept the accounts for both the internet café and the bar clean and precise. She knew how to cut costs and open up revenue streams at every detail.
Even today with the chain optical stores, the whole family pitches in during their free time — doing store checks, bringing in customers. His parents have even made a point of getting friendly with different square-dance groups around Hongkou, encouraging the older folks to come get their reading glasses fitted at their son’s stores.
Master Chi isn’t saying all this to marvel at my friend’s family.
The reason is that it’s not just his family. Almost every family around me that has achieved “unity among loved ones, mutual support” has either reached financial freedom, built a beautiful life, or made something of themselves.
When I think about why, the reason is actually quite simple: a family with parents, children, and add in a son-in-law and daughter-in-law, and you have six people.
A small team of six, as long as nobody pulls in the opposite direction — as long as everyone pools their energy to tackle life’s problems one by one — will be far more effective and productive than any lone wolf.
What you really don’t want is a family where everyone is emotionally volatile, always quarreling and creating chaos, scattered like loose sand, then dumping all their hopes and responsibilities onto someone else. That kind of family almost never ends up well.