Brothers and sisters, these words come to you as a friend.
Tonight’s piece is straightforward — I simply want to have a genuine conversation with you about how to actually live life after your thirties.
Because so many of you have written to me, pouring out your grief and despair.
Telling me you’re past thirty, no longer young and full of drive, lost in an uncertain world, with no idea where your future lies.
This past week or so has had me flying between Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and New York — so writing longer pieces has been a bit difficult. Dear brothers and sisters, please bear with me.
Tonight’s words are meant to be just that — another late-night heart-to-heart between you and me. Mutual encouragement, mutual support. I want you to know: whether you’re alone or not, you have a close friend who is always thinking of you. [hug] [heart]
Student Question
Dear Master Chi, greetings! I have a self-built rural home in my hometown. The neighbors to the west raised both their house and their perimeter wall higher than ours many years ago; the neighbors to the east are at the same height as us. Things haven’t gone well for our family over the years — a few unfortunate events have occurred. I’ve heard the saying, “Better to let the Azure Dragon rise ten thousand feet than to let the White Tiger press down upon you,” and I can’t help but wonder if this might be a factor. I would be grateful for your guidance on whether there is a connection, and whether any remedy exists. Thank you sincerely!
After years of reading destiny charts, I won’t claim to have any cosmic gift.
But after a few minutes of observing you, I can tell with complete certainty whether you have real wealth fortune — and I won’t be wrong.
Why?
Because years of moving through every social tier and circle have made it crystal clear to me what it actually takes for an ordinary person to make serious money.
Student Question
Hello Master, I met this man who is still working on his PhD. From my perspective, he seemed to have great prospects ahead of him — a future annual salary of over a million, willing to hand over his paycheck to his future wife, cook for her, and take her home.
But he told me that doing his PhD left him no opportunities to meet women. That immediately felt off to me. Shanghai has more women than men, his university is no exception, and there are plenty of social mixers on any college campus.
Against All Expectations
Two years back, a wave of pledge crises swept through public companies — the unintended consequence of a well-meaning policy. To prevent excessive market volatility, rules barred major shareholders and executives from selling large blocks of shares through normal market transactions. Under this framework, the only way shareholders could convert holdings into cash was by pledging them as collateral. The result: it became standard practice for controlling shareholders and key executives to pledge 70–80% of their equity stakes to unlock liquidity.
Student Question:
I’m currently a software engineer with three years of experience and one of the core contributors in my department. There are about three or four of us at a similar level, each leading our own project. One step above us is an open Manager Assistant position, and above that are two Deputy Managers and one Manager.
My direct supervisor has always been satisfied with my work, and the top leader has a favorable impression of me as well. During one conversation, he gave me some hints about what leadership work actually involves, and said, “Now that you’ve been here three years, if you have any ideas, feel free to bring them to me.” I think I’m in a position to apply for the Manager Assistant role. Looking at how promotions have gone in peer departments, three Manager Assistants were selected over the past three years, and after about a year, two of them were promoted to fill Deputy Manager vacancies.
Tonight, since I’m out, I won’t write anything long.
Honestly, I prefer it this way — no grand philosophizing, just talking to you like a close friend. Wherever the conversation takes us, that’s fine. Light and easy.
Like right now. I want to share a secret with you: the one thing that makes a decisive difference, that keeps you moving forward smoothly, comes down to just three words — hold steady.
If you cannot be your own master, others will master you. Sometimes you struggle your entire life only to find you’ve spent it fighting to break free from a trap someone else set for you. This is why all human effort ultimately serves one purpose: to claim sovereignty over one’s own destiny. This applies equally to individuals and to any collective.
Before the First World War, Britain served as the world’s dominant power. As its grip on the world began to loosen, it started planning for what came next. Britain controlled the world and ruled the seas for four hundred years from three small islands — achieved through two strategies: divide and conquer, and a global colonial economic system built before anyone else could. The former fragmented others into pieces too small to resist; the latter made Britain’s own position ever more secure — the more players drawn into the system, the stronger Britain’s footing, and the greater the profits extracted through the system’s built-in bias.
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.