After extensive contact with both the wealthy and the general public, I came to realize why ordinary people can work themselves to the bone their entire lives and still amount to nothing: they simply don’t understand where wealth comes from or how it actually operates.
This is why they stumble through life making one bad move after another — and in their relentless anxiety, they get harvested by one predatory scheme after another until there’s nothing left.
Just a few days ago, I received a message from a reader in my inbox. It read something like this:
“Master Chi, first of all, thank you so much for your thoughtful and consistent sharing. But I’ve always felt that your language tends to be quite sharp when you discuss topics about women. I sometimes worry this might drive away many female readers who can’t handle such direct criticism — and that you might be losing potential followers as a result. After all, as a woman myself, I know all too well that many girls today don’t respond well to being called out. I also hope that when you have time, you might write an article specifically for girls like me — ordinary, or even poor, from humble beginnings — and offer us some real guidance. I hope that’s not asking too much? Hehe.”
We begin with a reader’s letter:
Dear Master Chi, I apologize for this unsolicited intrusion — I am truly sorry to disturb you. But I have been unable to sleep lately, and in the stillness of late nights, anxiety and restlessness overwhelm me. I hope you will forgive this abrupt letter.
I am a mother and homemaker. A friend recommended your writings, and I was deeply moved. I read every single post carefully. I feel so far behind your other readers — it is quite humbling.
Those familiar with Master Chi already know: my articles have never aimed to entertain.
Expanding awareness, broadening perspective, sharpening judgment — that is my domain. This is why the readers who have followed me over the years tend to be, across the board, a caliber above the rest — regardless of gender or background. Even my female readers are, by and large, formidable women who have made something of themselves.
There have always been people who misread me — saying Master Chi is a cold-blooded social Darwinist, someone who judges everything by achievement alone. Think what you will. And frankly, they’re not entirely wrong. Because I have always believed, from start to finish: the higher your achievement and the greater your wealth, the more complete and fulfilled your life will be.
Why this conviction? Because countless facts have convinced me that wealth is inextricably linked to every other dimension of life. Unlock wealth, and you unlock the rest of your destiny.
Introduction: If your network of connections is of sufficient quality, you will inevitably come to understand that happiness and achievement in life do not necessarily have to be built upon grueling, blood-and-sweat struggle. Just as countless real-world examples are constantly teaching us: happiness and achievement are nothing more than doing the right thing, at the right time, toward the right goal. And the reason Master Chi writes this article today is not only because I hope you achieve happiness and success — but more so because I want that path to be easier for you. After all, an era of great reshuffling is fast approaching. Why not position yourself to win — and win decisively?
Introduction: A high-ranking smart woman is the dealer of her own destiny — so regardless of fortune or misfortune, she uses everything to propel her future forward. The low-tier foolish woman is toyed with by fate — so even when great luck arrives, she squanders it or misses the opportunity entirely. So please, promise Master Chi this: as a woman, you must live with sharp clarity and intelligence in this lifetime. One day you will realize that all the suffering, exhaustion, and bitterness in life could have been avoided long ago. They were never meant to touch you.
The real danger of being born into humble origins isn’t that your parents can’t provide material or financial support. The biggest problem is this: if you were born poor, your life effectively starts with a pre-packaged “bottom-rung survival manual” already in your hands.
Innocent and unaware, you’ll receive continuous indoctrination from parents who are themselves at the bottom — all the way until you enter university. Even if you one day wake up and frantically begin compensating with “elite knowledge,” it’s often already too late. Once your worldview takes shape, it becomes a brand burned into your bones — nearly impossible to wash away. Having believed the wrong things for so long, accepting the right things becomes incredibly difficult — like a surgical scraping of flesh from bone. Never mind whether you can endure it; few people even get the chance.
Frankly, Master Chi is simply a man of leisure living in the Jiangnan region who later took up traditional destiny reading (命理) as a profession — nothing particularly special or exceptional about him. If there is anything worth mentioning at all, it is that over the course of life, I have had the genuine fortune of crossing paths with some remarkably accomplished and outstanding individuals: people renowned for their wealth, their careers, or their standing in the world. I was simply the minor figure who, by fortune’s grace, had the honor of offering them counsel — a nobody of the lowest rung, nothing worth writing home about.
In the second part of the Gilded Age, Master Chi will focus on the topic of “self-cultivation.” This section matters because many people still haven’t grasped that the rules of the game have completely changed.
Take today’s wealthy individuals as an example. If you’re not in that circle, you naturally assume these rich people live lives of indulgence and excess — that their massive fortunes exist purely because of lucky timing or some murky, unspoken connections.