Strategy means striking at the very root of an industry.
If you can’t reach that root, don’t bother talking about strategy. Don’t dream of growing big and strong. Just do the honest work — maintain your customers, control your costs, keep optimizing, keep refining the details.
The vast majority of businesses in the world operate without strategy, and they do just fine. There’s nothing wrong with building a small, beautiful business or trade.
Maturity has no necessary connection to age.
Some people grow old while their thinking stays stale — out of touch with the times, coasting on seniority alone. They remain, in every meaningful sense, immature. Others are in their thirties, parents even, yet still think like children — afraid of the world, adrift in it, retreating into small, familiar circles.
Meanwhile, others I know rose to senior executive roles at major companies while still young, built substantial businesses of their own, or generated remarkable wealth through investing. What they share is this: the way they speak, act, and read situations carries a maturity that far exceeds their years.
Student Question:
After graduating, I failed the graduate school entrance exam once. I currently work as an online customer service rep — I’ve been doing it for about a year. Now I want to switch jobs and move into operations, but the problem is I have no relevant experience. Customer service has been simple, mechanical work: answering messages using fixed script templates. It doesn’t feel like something that adds value to a job application.
If you frequently meet influential figures at work events and dinner parties, you’ve probably collected their contact info — but have no idea how to follow up. Take someone working in financial marketing: attractive, but worried about coming across as too agenda-driven, and acutely aware of the status gap. So the connection never goes beyond a first meeting. How do you actually maintain high-value connections when you’re just starting out?
Student Question
Master, how does one become a high-income earner? What are the different paths for those with advanced degrees versus those with ordinary education?
Master Chi’s Response
1. Advanced Degree — Career Route: Becoming a career elite or professional. Think big-tech programmers, investment banking, law, medicine — the high-salary corporate track. Generally speaking, this path suits people who are both highly credentialed and willing to grind. Those who fit that profile, if they can climb the ladder or land a role at a top-tier firm, will find the income quite good.
Student Question: I want to do more innovative work, so I’m thinking of transitioning into product management.
My background: I graduated last year with a bachelor’s degree and am currently working in operations at a new retail company. The brand has strong market presence, but there’s little real room to exercise operational strategy. Business was great during the recent National Day Golden Week holiday, but that had nothing to do with my work as an operator. One year in, and I have no meaningful results to show.
2023-09-19 17:37 — Commander replies to Awakening: Please don’t discuss specific [stock picks] here…
2023-09-19 18:04 — Awakening:
2023-09-19 18:16 — Commander
2023-09-19 16:43 — Commander: The cycle may arrive ahead of schedule!
All available information is now signaling one thing: pervasive pessimism about weakening demand. The most telling example is Germany’s PMI — Europe’s manufacturing powerhouse — approaching 30. This so-called Purchasing Managers’ Index reflects the forward-looking judgments of supply chain participants at every level. Based on industry experience and their own operating conditions, they form expectations about future production — and then adjust inventory up or down accordingly. This figure is forecast to…
All current information points toward one thing: a pervasive pessimism about slumping demand. The clearest example is Germany’s PMI — the manufacturing powerhouse of Europe — approaching 30. This so-called Purchasing Managers’ Index reflects the judgments made by supply chain participants, based on industry experience and their own conditions, about future production expectations — judgments that drive decisions to increase or reduce inventory. The figure signals whether production willingness is expanding or contracting. Over the past few months, it broke above 50 several times, prompting sweeping pessimistic coverage from Western media. But Germany’s index has since fallen below 40. Subsequently released US data shows that over the first seven months, American imports from the rest of the world dropped by $1 trillion compared to the same period last year. As the world’s largest consumer market, the Eagle’s (America’s) imports are other countries’ exports; its demand is other nations’ production. This sharp drop in demand has left mid- and downstream manufacturers starved of orders, which in turn has kept raw material exports and commodities in a sustained slump. The commodity price cycle, therefore, will determine the overall direction of the global economy.
Student Question
Hello, Master Chi. For those working in operations and marketing, and for professionals broadly who feel stuck in their personal development — how can they learn more effectively given the current environment?
Master Chi’s Response
There are essentially two points.
The first concerns today’s broader environment. Most working professionals — especially those with operations and marketing backgrounds — need to seek out new paths for personal development. But inevitably, only a small number will actually get results.
Student Question: Master Chi, I’ve been thinking about starting a side business on Xiaohongshu or Douyin. But I feel like I’m missing a cohesive overall strategy. Could you walk me through exactly how to approach this?
Master Chi’s Response:
Running any kind of project involves far more than people realize. Let me break down the key questions you need to think through before launching on Douyin or Xiaohongshu.
First: The Business Side (Product)