Let me share a small personal secret with you. Can you guess when Master Chi feels most at ease each day?
Here’s the answer.
Without question, it’s those forty minutes when my driver carries me home along Shanghai’s glittering elevated highway after a full day of engagements.
In that stretch of time, I can sit back in complete comfort — watching the city lights scroll past the window while quietly, deeply reviewing every detail of the day.
Those forty minutes feel like a meditation. Still and efficient all at once.
Many things that wouldn’t resolve in the bustle of the day suddenly become clear — cause and effect laid bare.
Which business relationships need deeper cultivation going forward? Which investments could be better coordinated? What risks and crises should I begin preparing for now? And what insights are worth gathering and sharing?
Tonight’s dinner was a particularly interesting one. The guests were a handful of respected, well-connected business elders from the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region.
The greatest gift of conversations with people like this is the chance to encounter wisdom that has survived the test of time — truths that have remained precious across decades of change.
After several rounds of toasts this evening, Master Chi has some thoughts worth sharing with you slowly:
1
If you want to build wealth and accomplish something meaningful, the first step is to get your mindset straight.
You need to understand your own capabilities, your real level, your actual strengths — and then read the landscape clearly: the trends, the direction, the era you’re living in.
Only then can you see your own value on the board with clarity, and where your path forward actually lies.
Remember this: only when you have truly mastered how to play as a piece on the board can you begin to grasp the strategist’s thinking — and eventually rise to change your own destiny.
2
If you are in your youth, your prime, or your middle years — if you haven’t yet crossed sixty — your one and only core mission is to use every legitimate means available to accumulate sufficient wealth.
The earlier you build that wealth, the sooner it begins generating compounding returns. It snowballs. It grows.
And once you have enough wealth, every problem in your life becomes manageable. This is precisely why wealth fortune is considered the foundation of all other fortunes.
3
There’s a phrase I love deeply: no destruction, no construction — break apart, be reborn.
Here is the truth: personal growth is, at its core, a continuous process of self-destruction and self-renewal.
Whether it’s the people and situations that drain you, or the fears and anxieties that hold you back — you must face them head-on and demolish them completely. Only then can a new cycle of growth begin.
But human beings, by nature, seek stability and calm. We fear the unknown, the turbulent, the uncertain. Yet you must come to understand this: too long in comfort breeds stagnation. It is only through breaking that something truly new can be built.
4
If you are truly determined to climb higher, the most direct path is this: continuously upgrade your circle. Seek out people who are more accomplished than you, and grow alongside them through shared work.
Remember — society is composed of people at different levels, and the people you associate with directly determine your opportunities, your perspective, and your future.
I never tire of reminding readers who come to me for destiny readings: if you want to make something of yourself in this world, stop attaching importance to things as hollow and worthless as face, emotions, and feelings.
The truly formidable people are those willing to make consistent, patient investment toward the excellent connections around them — until even iron trees bloom and glaciers melt.
When you are weak, huddling for warmth with others just as humble as yourself may feel comfortable. But only when you truly grasp that “one word from above can change the fate of those below” will you understand why reaching upward matters.
5
Let me share a principle I’ve distilled from years of experience — a hard truth worth waking up to:
There are only four ways to ruin a person: entering the wrong industry, marrying the wrong partner, finding comfort among the mediocre, and refusing to see clearly.
In plain terms:
Without knowing your own destiny framework (格局), you drift into an industry that doesn’t suit you based on casual preference — and spend the better part of your life drifting there, going nowhere.
You marry someone you’re fundamentally incompatible with, and spend the second half of your life tangled in resentment.
And finally, you surround yourself with people of low ambition and no drive, and gradually decide that this is simply the life you deserve.
Honestly, if someone is living this way — regardless of how little they’ve accomplished — they can stop thinking about a meaningful future. Even if their BaZi (八字) holds genuinely good fortune, it will simply go to waste.
6
There is a truth in traditional wisdom that may be hard to believe: the road is long and arduous — but those who walk it will arrive.
If you observe carefully, you’ll notice that most people today live in tremendous internal chaos.
They doubt, they worry, they exhaust themselves with inner conflict — and after all that struggle, they inch forward a few steps. Ultimately, they scatter their own strength and end up circling in place.
After years of reading destiny charts, one insight has taken deep root in me: persistence will take you further than cleverness.
Let me say it again: the hardest thing in life is not simply knowing your correct direction early enough.
The harder thing is — once you know that direction — to endure whatever difficulties and setbacks stand between you and your destination, and to keep moving forward with single-minded resolve. Without wavering. Without retreating. Without circling back.
This is part of why so many readers seek out Master Chi to have their life pattern (格局) read.
The reason is simple: after speaking with me, you can see your path clearly, understand the obstacles ahead, and still walk forward with conviction.
With that kind of persistence — how could your wealth and achievements be anything but exceptional?