Starting from absolute zero — hounded daily by Macau debt collectors.
To slowly finding his footing again and reclaiming a net worth in the hundreds of millions — my friend Su accomplished his full comeback in just five years.
I still remember it clearly. Many years ago, a down-and-out middle-aged man tracked me down through a winding chain of mutual connections, determined to find me.
His purpose was simple: he wanted me to read his destiny chart (命盘) and tell him honestly whether he had any chance at all of turning his life around.
Why use the phrase “turning his life around”?
Simple. Because in a small city in Jiangsu, he once had a glorious rise.
In the boom years of massive infrastructure projects and land development, he had clawed his way from a village laborer to a rough-edged construction contractor, and eventually transformed himself into a locally respected figure — Boss Su.
But as you know, back in those days, any businessman who’d made even a bit of money would sooner or later find himself drawn to Macau to try his luck.
And Boss Su, for all his local prestige, couldn’t resist Macau’s pull. He handed over the hundreds of millions he’d built over years of hard work — every last cent.
So when Boss Su found me, he was truly at the end of his rope. He had nothing left but a little pocket money for the journey.
He came to me through a mutual friend — one of my closest — borrowing the weight of that friendship to get a proper reading.
What could I do? When friendship calls, you answer.
A person’s destiny chart is their private secret — I can’t share the details here.
But even after all these years, I still clearly remember what I said to him: “Brother Su, rest assured. Follow what I tell you, and in five years, I guarantee you’ll make your comeback.”
In that moment, his eyes were full of confusion. He couldn’t tell if I was feeding him empty motivation or painting him a fantasy.
Eight years later, when Brother Su saw me again, his first move was to wrap me in a bear hug, his eyes full of gratitude and relief: “Master Chi, it was truly your guidance that got me back on my feet!”
That evening — the best restaurant in all of Shanghai, the finest ingredients, the best chef, the finest wine. His generosity was impossible to decline.
Honestly, I’ve known many men like Brother Su. After all, any man who sets out to make something of himself in this world is bound to have been beaten down by fate at least once.
And from a metaphysical perspective, anyone who wants to build something truly great must go through at least one massive fall first. You cannot build without first breaking.
If I’m reading this right, today’s article is mostly being read by men — so I’ll skip the filler and get straight to the core advice.
1 — You must absolutely plug your financial bleeding and cut out whatever is continuously draining your wealth fortune at the root.
If you’ve been working incredibly hard for years with nothing to show for it, that’s clear evidence there’s a problem you can’t see — one that is continuously leaking away your wealth fortune (财运).
So whenever I help someone untangle their destiny, I always start by asking them to set a “reset and cooling-off period.”
During this time, don’t take on any major moves. Just handle the bare essentials of survival. Then cut off all social engagements, speculation, business ventures, and partnerships.
No unnecessary branches. No non-essential personal or business expenses whatsoever.
Then look back: what exactly caused your continuous financial losses?
Once you find it — cut it off immediately. Reclaim your energy and capital with everything you have.
Many people find their rise especially difficult precisely because they never properly completed this step.
It’s like a ship sailing hard but getting slower and slower — because the hull is taking on water below.
If you don’t patch the leak, your ship will never sail smoothly, let alone reach its destination.
2 — Be ruthless and decisive, but never let your nature be corrupted.
There’s a certain kind of man — both pitiable and laughable. He talks endlessly about his grand ambitions and his determination to achieve something great. But the moment he actually needs to push himself? He waffles. He hesitates. He shrinks.
I once had a reader in his early thirties — just an ordinary white-collar worker, making maybe 100,000 to 200,000 a year, drifting along with no particular direction.
He sought me out and asked me to read his career trajectory and wealth fortune, wanting me to show him the way forward.
That wasn’t hard for me. Clarify the thinking, map out the path, identify a few key noble benefactors (贵人, Gui Ren), auspicious luck cycles, and turning-point timing — going from an ordinary office worker to someone with real accomplishments genuinely isn’t difficult.
But he was one of the “softer” types among men. He didn’t want to suffer, didn’t want hardship. He just spent his days looking for the fastest shortcut.
So I gave him this earnest piece of additional counsel:
In everyone’s life, there is a period when you must actively choose to become hard-edged and decisive. That’s the only way to break open your situation. Otherwise, the timid habits of the weak will let life grind down every sharp edge and every fighting spirit you have. If a man loses his edge and his fire before he’s broken open his life’s possibilities — then he basically has no future.
And when I say “ruthless and decisive,” I don’t mean toward others — I mean toward yourself.
Ruthless: treat yourself like a piece of raw steel. Be willing to endure any tempering to reach your goal. Whether it’s the fire or the hammer — if it serves the purpose, you can take it.
Decisive: stop being precious about formalities. When you’re broke, standing on ceremony is just weakness — it’s incompetence. Develop the habit of judging everything purely by results and efficiency. Whatever it takes to get things done, do it without hesitation.
But never let your nature be corrupted. Always direct your actions at situations, not at people. Never think about advancing yourself by harming others. When you can lend someone a hand, do it — and when you do, explain the stakes clearly and give them a pointer. That way your network will grow richer and stronger over time.
Not many people will truly understand what I’ve just said. I won’t say it a second time. How much of it you can absorb — that’s up to you.
3 — Have a clear, big-picture understanding of the path to a comeback.
I’ve carefully recalled every “comeback story” I’ve witnessed in my life, and I’ve found not a single one — not one — that was achieved through pure individual effort alone.
In other words, grinding away mindlessly with your head down truly cannot change a person’s destiny.
Generally speaking, a person’s comeback unfolds like this:
First, get clear on your actual position. See yourself with complete clarity — you are an ordinary person with nothing to your name and no capital worth posturing about.
Then identify one path you’re willing to pursue — or even if you’re not willing, one you must commit to anyway — and in that pursuit, no matter how many storms you face, make sure you are always striving with everything you have to improve.
That improvement includes technical skill, professional expertise, reputation, connections — and of course, real, tangible earning power.
Then comes the key: make absolutely sure that your combined abilities get noticed by someone who operates far above your own level, and then serve that person wholeheartedly.
In the course of that service, keep expanding your capabilities, keep absorbing the wisdom of that noble benefactor’s circle — and keep repeating the cycle.
The most critical step of all is ensuring you remain perpetually in this state of “learning → evolving → climbing,” always moving through one current after another of favorable momentum.
Take those early construction contractors who, when developers couldn’t pay cash, accepted a few apartment units as settlement instead. Who could have predicted that those contractors who took the apartments back then would end up wealthier than the original developers themselves?
That is the classic comeback path. Nearly every circle in nearly every city has stories exactly like this.
How exactly you walk it — think carefully. I’ve already given you the answer.
A final word: I’ve never actually wanted your life to be exhausting. In this one life, living freely and comfortably is what matters most.
But I do hope that at some particular stage, you will be ruthless with yourself — and complete one clean, decisive comeback.
Yes, the process will be hard. But if you lay your groundwork well, what you get in return is a lifetime of ease and abundance.
Why wouldn’t you?
Temporary hardship always beats lifelong hardship.
That said — I haven’t seen your destiny chart, so I can’t make promises that are too absolute. What if you’re simply destined to find your success in middle age? Or what if a few small correct decisions are all it takes for your whole life to run smoothly?
Either way — we’re all men here. If you genuinely feel you need someone to help you think carefully through your life, you’ll know to come find me. But I’ll say this plainly: I speak directly, I’ve never liked hedging. Good or bad, fortune or hardship — I’ll tell you straight.
How to find the shortcuts in your own life, and how to walk those shortcuts all the way through — I’ll give you my full honest analysis.
So whether to talk through your life in detail — that’s your call to make.
Every man who truly takes his future seriously makes this kind of thing a priority.