Student Question:
Hello Master Chi. I’ve been running a cattery for two years and it’s been cash-flow negative the entire time. My family keeps urging me to quit. Monthly operating costs — food, supplies, utilities, housing — run over 10,000 RMB. Selling two cats in a month is considered a good month; sometimes I go the entire month without a single sale. Yet the monthly expenses never stop. Lately I’ve been keeping the cattery alive with my day-job income, but even that doesn’t cover the gap. A few days ago I paid rent and bought cat food — 3,000 RMB in food alone, and it only lasts a month. More expenses keep rolling in after that. I’d like to ask Master Chi: what is the true essence of entrepreneurship? How does one build a genuine competitive advantage?
Speaking to the present moment — I think marrying a little later is perfectly fine. People today are more self-focused. By a certain age, you become more mature and tolerant. Your financial situation is likely stronger too.
I also believe that parents who leave no material foundation for their children — those who default to “children will find their own way” — are fundamentally irresponsible.
Unless you’re born into wealth or political privilege, building your material foundation requires time and real effort.
Decades lived, countless scenes witnessed — feasts and drinks, extravagance pushed to its limits, money spent like water. I’ve had all of it.
And yet, I still can’t forget those few glorious summers of my youth.
Back then, I hadn’t yet stepped onto my path. I had no idea that in the years ahead, I would need to fight tooth and nail to reclaim my family’s legacy. I simply assumed I’d settle into an ordinary life, savoring a quiet existence forever.
It must have been about three years ago. A good friend invited me into a group chat. The people in it were no slouches — at minimum, leadership at foreign companies or Fortune 500 firms.
I almost never spoke in that group. I treated it purely as a little window into the yuppie lifestyle. After all, my own core circle is made up of older-generation capital and establishment figures — heavyweight people, but they rarely talk about巨富民, Pure Fitness, Brompton, Acne Studios, or any of those refined white-collar topics. So having this little window into current trends? Not a bad thing.
Student Question
Hello, Master. I see many people with profitable projects, but when I try to do them myself, I feel completely lost and don’t know where to start. What is the core of making money?
Master Chi’s Response
The underlying logic of making money is actually the same across the board.
I wonder — have you ever taken the time to summarize and reflect on it yourself?
Those who haven’t will spend a lot of time studying other people’s success stories, but they never develop anything of their own. The reason is simple: they don’t know how to organize, summarize, and distill their own experience and methodology.
First, let me be clear — nearly everything in this article is my own subjective, personal perspective.
The reason I’ve arrived at these views is that after accumulating some wealth of my own, I’ve been able to witness and deeply feel certain things firsthand.
So I think it’s worth having a brief conversation with the small number of readers who have genuine ambitions to grow.
After all, information — like wealth — becomes more refined and concentrated as you move up through the tiers.
Still away from home — a few casual late-night thoughts, this one runs long. I’ll write more tomorrow.
For ordinary people like you and me, the greatest pitfall is going too deep into 执念 (obsession — being trapped by a fixed desire or attachment).
What I mean is: don’t let life’s current setbacks send you spiraling — desires churning, emotions collapsing.
Your heart will only grow heavier, until you find yourself living under a quiet cloud of misery.
Student Question
Hello, Master. I have a question about career transitions and role changes — and about conducting industry analysis. How can one quickly learn new knowledge or skills?
Master Chi’s Response
To understand things broadly and learn quickly, you need to get the following right.
1. Preparation
The prerequisite is that you must build a framework for this new field — in other words, its structure.
Once you have a knowledge structure for the new field, your learning becomes both fast and smooth, because you know exactly where each thing you’re studying fits within that structure.
Recently, two events have sent significant ripples through the hearts and minds of women — the film The Vanishing of Her and the passing of singer Coco Lee. Both powerfully reflect how toxic relationships (孽缘) can damage and drain an entire life. I myself have witnessed events far worse than these with my own eyes.
And yet, I hope you understand: in this world, all things carry both darkness and light. A cautionary tale should be taken to heart as a warning — not used as an excuse to flee from life altogether.
Student Question
Master Chi, hello. There’s a saying in relationship circles: “Men are compatible downward, women are compatible upward.”
Even popular relationship influencers treat this as gospel truth. Whenever they discuss how men and women choose partners, they default to this premise. And of course, many women love to hear it — it gives them the perfect theoretical justification for aspiring to marry up. What’s your take on this?
Master Chi’s Response