Master Chi has a habit: every year during the week before New Year’s Day, he takes the full week to slowly reflect and take stock of everything that has unfolded over the past twelve months. If this were pushed back to January or February — when the Lunar New Year draws near — the mind begins to loosen. Festive obligations and the endless small business of the season make it far too easy for your thoughts and focus to scatter.
Young people and the naive ones always chase hollow titles and glowing reputations, driven by raw passion and unbridled enthusiasm. The title of “top dog” — that’s the achievement they crave most.
But once they’ve been out in the world long enough, they naturally come to understand: in the upper tiers of any field, the power and resources among key players tend to be roughly balanced.
Everyone has their own backing, their own people, their own networks and systems supporting them.
If your child — especially your daughter — has grown up with a gentle, obedient personality and a deep love for listening to others and giving them care, then as a parent, you need to be careful. Because those beautiful human qualities of hers are precisely the ones most likely to be exploited by the most depraved of predators — and she may ultimately become their well-trained dog.
Yes, the daughter you have held in the palm of your hand and raised with such tender care may, because of her goodness and naivety, be captured by people with no moral floor whatsoever — and become a lost lamb who gives endlessly without ever thinking to resist. The reason is simple: while she is offering her sincerity and love, a predator will shamelessly exploit those very emotions and become a burden and a curse she cannot cut loose from her life.
A few days ago, I accepted a friend’s invitation to visit the new establishment he had just opened in the Jiangnan region. Now, anyone who knows me will tell you that while I tend to carry myself with a certain composed air in public — yes, I do enjoy putting on airs — it is entirely deliberate. Life passes in but a few seasons, and whether you are riding high or weathering a storm, taking pleasure quietly and enjoying yourself with restraint is not only appropriate but necessary. This becomes especially clear once you have accumulated a certain degree of wealth: you begin to understand that this is simply what life is.
How do honor students break through? By ascending dimensions — using their mastery of the rules to escape the rules’ grip. How do poor students break through? By striking downward — using raw courage and audacity to flip the table and play their own game. And what about the ordinary person who has neither guts nor brilliance? Simple: follow the rising stars and settle for a share of whatever they carve out.
Like you, Master Chi is someone who naturally loves to enjoy life — and by “enjoy,” I mean in the most literal, material sense. This is why, no matter how busy work gets, I always make a point of traveling with my wife at least once every six months, with each trip lasting two weeks or more. Everything about these travels — every experience, every meal, every night’s stay — is chosen from the higher end. Not extravagant for the sake of it, but deliberately good. So on nearly every trip abroad, our hotels start at six or seven thousand a night. And domestically, Aman’s properties — the Nuo Beijing, Amanfayun, Amandayan, Amanyangyun — have become our regular weekend escapes. Of course, this kind of spending is nothing compared to many others, but I only ask that I honor myself. And that’s enough.
1 — What Is True Elite Consciousness?
To be candid, one of the things that has given Master Chi the greatest satisfaction and relief in recent years is the rise of “great nation consciousness” among China’s young people. This so-called great nation consciousness is not purely about “hot-blooded patriotism” — though patriotism is certainly an important part of it. What is truly remarkable is that a significant portion of today’s young people, along with the general public, have developed a profoundly clear understanding of “the logic behind a rising great nation.”
The boldness of your perspective on life is truly critical to everything you’ll ever achieve. Don’t dismiss this as empty inspiration — because when you get down to it, most people remain mediocre and directionless, not because they don’t know what the optimal next move is, but because they’re still waiting. Waiting for opportunities, waiting for connections, waiting for the right time, waiting… until they die.
If you don’t grasp this deeply enough, then I’m sorry — getting flogged like an old donkey on a millstone until you drop dead is the fate awaiting the vast majority of people.
When you think of Zou Shiming and Ran Yingying, what comes to mind? For most people, the biggest talking point about this couple is the former Olympic boxing champion’s humiliating defeat at the hands of a Japanese delivery-boy-turned-fighter — a loss born of complacency and underestimation. Stories like these spread fast, because nothing captivates the public quite like watching yesterday’s success story crumble. And if there’s another dimension to public opinion, it mostly consists of attacks and criticism directed at his wife, Ran Yingying. Yes — she has an overdone internet-celebrity face; she lacks taste; she’s greedy and materialistic. She even had the audacity to tear up their management contract without understanding how the sports industry works, then personally arranged the fight that ended her husband’s career. For a time, the couple became a national punchline, with Ran Yingying bearing the brunt of everyone’s contempt.
People are born with different levels of luck — some blessed, some ordinary. This is indisputable.
Some people, right from the start, find noble benefactors (Gui Ren) who lift them up simply because they have a sweet tongue or an agreeable personality.
Others may be honest and steady but unremarkable, and find it hard to be noticed early on. That’s just the way things are.
“If destiny includes noble benefactors, embrace them; if not, don’t force it.” Noble benefactors are, by nature, far rarer than wealth fortune. That’s precisely why they’re called noble.