Every person — you and I included — is destined to pass through a period of profound darkness.
During that passage, your confidence will be trampled. Your efforts will be dismissed entirely. Everything you have given will be met with betrayal.
But do not be afraid. This is the necessary road of growth. Sit quietly with that pain, and draw from it the nourishment that will help you mature.
Only through this can you become truly resilient — truly formed.
Student Question: Master Chi, when facing the many choices along life’s path, how does one make a decision they won’t regret?
In elementary school, agonizing over which flavor snack to choose. In middle school, torn between devoting everything to competitions for a guaranteed university recommendation, or studying the curriculum to prepare for the upcoming high school entrance exam. After the entrance exam, torn between attending the experimental class at a nearby high school or boarding at a top provincial high school farther from home. At the start of high school, torn between joining the school’s competition track or working through the standard curriculum step by step. In the second semester of high school, torn between the humanities and sciences tracks. In the second year of high school, torn about whether to confess feelings to someone I liked. After graduating from university, torn about what kind of career to pursue.
I have experienced poverty deeply myself.
Especially during that period when the family business collapsed — fortunes exhausted, every property gone.
Through those years, every single day was a scramble, exhausting both body and spirit. Even a few yuan could make my heart suddenly lurch.
In those moments, it meant nothing that the family had once been prosperous, that we had thrown money around freely, that we had connections and private jets on a whim. None of it mattered.
I’ve been traveling around North America lately — looking at assets, catching up with friends, handling various matters — and I happened to catch a cold along the way.
So just a quick note to my readers: the longer pieces will have to wait until I’m back in the country and recovered. Give me a few days.
Today, let me share one simple yet profoundly effective principle.
That principle is: flowing water brings wealth.
In this world, there are three kinds of people. The first kind says what’s on their mind directly. The second kind has things to say but keeps quiet. The third kind has things to say but says them sideways.
If something like depth of character (城府 — the art of concealing one’s thoughts) truly exists, then the latter group undoubtedly possesses more of it than the former. But speaking or not speaking is not the endpoint. Knowing how to say exactly the right thing at the right moment — that is the key.
I’ve been traveling these past couple of days, but I found a moment to jot down some thoughts — consider this a gift to you.
When you’ve experienced enough in life, you’ll come to realize something.
Whether you can become wealthier and more capable ultimately comes down to one thing: whether you can handle what gets thrown at you.
To be honest, almost all of it will be trouble — messy situations, bad developments, difficult problems. But you still can’t run from them. You have to learn to meet them head-on, because these are the test questions Heaven itself has arranged for you. Pass the test, and your rank goes up.
In any communication aimed at persuasion, you must find the emotional opening in the other person — touch them at the heart. Mutual emotional resonance is the foundation; only then will they truly listen, and only then will they be convinced.
To persuade someone, there is nothing beyond moving them with feeling and reasoning with them through logic — but feeling must come before logic, for logic can only enter a heart that has already been opened. This is what it means to truly connect.
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)
Fate is a remarkable thing. The very fact that you’re reading this article means heaven wants you to find encouragement here.
Especially in this hour before dawn — I know you’re carrying a great deal of pressure inside.
Anxious, unable to sleep.
Anxious about income that never feels enough, about a future that remains unclear, about a marriage that isn’t working, about problems of every kind.
So let me offer you this: remember, every problem you’re facing right now has been faced by countless people before you — and many of them faced situations far worse than yours.
Test whether you have what it takes for self-media. Step 1: If you’re doing graphic content, open any social platform, pick a topic that interests you, and start writing.
Step 2: The next day, look at what you wrote the day before. Revise it. Then write something new.
Step 3: Repeat.
The benchmarks:
If you can’t keep it up for one month — you don’t have the talent. If you sustain one month but still can’t reach 3,000 followers after six months — you probably don’t have the talent either. But you can keep at it if you want to find out. If you’ve stuck with it for a full year and still haven’t hit 10,000 followers — again, no natural talent. Though luck is unpredictable, so whether to continue is entirely your call. If you ultimately can’t stay consistent — three days on, two days off — that’s also a sign of no talent. If you’ve stayed consistent but seen zero progress whatsoever — that’s no luck. Writing can only be a hobby at that point. Don’t count on making money from it. Harsh, but true.