I previously wrote about how Shanghai’s former richest man made his fortune — and it sparked enormous curiosity among many of you. You wanted to understand how that group of people managed to accumulate their first pot of gold during those wild, lawless years. They started out just like everyone else — penniless and powerless. So how did they break through the class ceiling and rise to wealth?
True to Master Chi’s long-standing habit, I don’t just want you to understand those old stories. I want you to extract real knowledge from them. So I’ve structured this article into several chapters, each building on the last:
- The original capital that built an empire
- The skills ordinary people truly lack
- What real second-generation wealth actually looks like
- The opportunities for today’s new generation
One more thing — this piece runs over 4,000 characters. I suggest you bookmark it and read it carefully when you have time.
The Original Capital for Pioneering#
First, I want to say that Master Chi personally believes very strongly in what we call timing (时运). Not just because I make my living in Chinese metaphysics — more importantly, I’ve witnessed far too many people whose rise to success was built entirely on riding the right current at the right moment.
What is timing? Heaven sets the time; you carry the fortune. When the moment aligns and your luck puts you in the right place, even a pig can leap into a dragon.
A person can only fully realize their potential and talent against the backdrop of the right era.
This truth played out perfectly in the lives of that first generation of tycoons.
So what was the secret to getting rich in their era? There was no secret. In a time when the entire nation was in a phase of explosive golden growth, the key was the audacity to leverage your assets at an extraordinarily high ratio.
In today’s language: “I’m all in — do whatever you want.” No exaggeration — this was naked, unapologetic gambler thinking.
If you look closely at that generation, you’ll notice their era left a distinct imprint on them. It wasn’t the aura of an entrepreneur — it was the aura of a businessman. What’s the difference? Businessmen carry heavier gambling instincts; entrepreneurs are built for the long, cultivated haul.
These two very different temperaments also shaped two completely different eras.
From the 1990s through 2010, it was an era where brilliance and absurdity flew in equal measure. The fortunes made during that period rarely involved inventing something, or building a great company or product. More often, it was some gambler who mortgaged everything to acquire large-scale assets, then watched as years of monetary expansion pushed those values through the roof. At its core: it was a bet.
And it was a rational one. Between 1995 and 2005, essentially every property asset in Beijing and Shanghai — assuming it wasn’t complete garbage — appreciated 15 to 20 times over, sometimes more. So even if your cost of capital ran as high as 10%, you were still guaranteed to win.
Those unfamiliar with the game might roll their eyes and dismiss it: “That’s not much of a skill — you just borrowed money and went all in. Pure luck.” I’m sorry to say — they’re dead wrong.
Because in that era, having the audacity and the ability to deploy massive leverage was genuinely one of the hardest things in the world to pull off. After all, in a time when average monthly wages were 800 to 1,200 yuan, when most people hadn’t completed any meaningful accumulation, when few had a single decent property to their name — if you walked into a major institution to borrow money, they’d escort you out and call you a lunatic.
So go ahead and browse through the business and investment leaders born in the 1960s and 70s — you’ll notice a subtle commonality beneath all their very different personalities. In their era, every single one of them was extraordinarily socially fluent, masterfully navigating all directions with grace and charm. Why? Because only by achieving this could you even access someone who held real capital-allocation authority. Just access — nothing more.
But that access alone was enough to get half a foot into the rushing current of fortune.
Master Chi won’t spell everything out here. There’s no need — and anyone with half a brain can piece together the underlying logic.
Take the man who was nominally Shanghai’s richest in those days. You’ll find that his life’s turning point wasn’t some successful business venture. It was the restaurant he opened with his wife — a place that built a sterling reputation — and through that, he stepped into the circle.
That circle was the true source of original capital.
This also gives me a good opportunity to answer a question that baffles many people: why did so many of our famous first-generation tycoons show no real desire to groom their children as successors? Take a certain beloved public figure, for example.
The answer is equally simple: these first-generation builders had no way to pass on what they truly possessed. The company with a seemingly trillion-yuan market cap was never the core asset.
The real core was those invisible “true partners” — the ones who never appear onstage. So tell me: how could a second-generation heir in their thirties ever build the same unspoken understanding and alliance with those true partners? And how could they possibly command the same social fluency from below — weaving together the intricate web of mutual interests the way their parents did? They simply can’t.
The Skills Ordinary People Truly Lack#
When reading people’s destiny frameworks (格局), Master Chi frequently notices that young people at the middle-class level tend to dramatically overestimate their own abilities. They’ll often ask me just how high they can climb, or how badly they’ve been underestimated.
Honestly? There are certainly people who choose the wrong path and squander an excellent hand of cards — and there are quite a few of them.
But the majority of people are like that barber in a Stephen Chow comedy — the one who’s supremely confident he was born with extraordinary martial talent, when in reality he’s utterly mediocre with zero competitive edge.
Most people have a far too simplistic view of the wealthy class.
Take the seemingly brainless act of leveraging assets. Ordinary people imagine it like this: take on debt, sleep soundly, wake up rich a decade later.
But even these three simple moves — borrow, hold, endure — can break most people at every single step. Because the moment you set foot on that path, pressure becomes your spouse and anxiety becomes your brother.
From that point on, every single day you will face funding gaps, large and small — some from institutions, some from private lenders.
Looking back now, no one feels fear, because hindsight shows us the terrifying asset growth of those years. But at the time — with no one telling you the outcome in advance — where did you find the absolute courage and conviction?
Those tycoons were essentially sailing a leaking ship toward a treasure island. You never knew whether fortune or shipwreck would arrive first.
Look at most ordinary people today. Never mind the courage to sail — even a modest investment loss or a mortgage payment can leave them gasping for air.
So never underestimate what looks like an unremarkable ability. The heaviest sword carries no sharp edge; the greatest skill leaves no visible trace. Staying composed and effective under crushing pressure — that is itself a terrifying form of strength.
For reference: that generation of Shanghai’s wealthiest were managing daily financial costs in the millions — in an era when average monthly incomes were still 800 to 1,200 yuan.
How about asking today’s generation of complaining white-collar workers to carry 100,000 yuan a month in rent? Don’t assume that because some people can, everyone can. Objectively assess the gap between people — it’s the most basic form of respect for reality.
The skills that era demanded were also fundamentally different from today’s. It was an era that ran on charisma — the age of talking big while spending extravagantly, of making a grand impression. Entirely unlike today’s approach of keeping quiet and building wealth in silence. Why?
Because that era was about person-to-person relationships. If you could master one particular person, you could unlock a cascade of doors and opportunities.
This is both a skill and a gift — and it’s a high-level capability that ordinary people consistently underestimate.
Let me ask you this: have you noticed that people who are lower on the career ladder are not just weak in ability — they also share one fatal flaw? They lack persuasive power.
Persuasive power here means the ability to make someone genuinely trust you enough to work alongside you toward a shared goal — to convince people to pool their resources and commit them to a single direction.
More precisely: the ability to rally people to your flag and draw allies to your cause with a single call.
This kind of ability exists in perhaps one in a thousand ordinary people. The vast majority of white-collar workers can’t even convince their own spouse or parents of anything. So even if they want to build wealth, they get stuck at the most fundamental gate: assembling resources.
And they’ll never understand why one failure leaves them with nothing, while certain others seem to bounce back with fresh capital no matter how many times they fall. The answer lies in this one skill.
So: left hand holds the mental fortitude to bear crushing pressure; right hand holds the social grace to assemble resources. That is the core secret of how the first generation rose.
Never underestimate these two seemingly plain capabilities. A human’s maximum diving depth is 332 meters — but most ordinary people max out at 10. That’s a 30-fold gap, right in front of you.
Now look at your own parents. Why didn’t they rise during that era? Isn’t it true they may have mastered plenty of flashy surface-level skills — yet lacked precisely these two crucial capabilities?
And look at that generation of tycoons. Wasn’t every single one of them a grandmaster of both?
He’s a Prodigal Son, Not a True Second Generation#
Eras shift constantly. The operating logic that dominated for two decades may not apply in today’s world.
I once had a female client — a young woman blessed with good looks and sharp instincts who had worked her way into a seemingly respectable social circle. Her family, in the Jiangnan region, carried some modest local standing from the previous generation. She came to consult on her romance fortune (桃花运), but her question was sharp: “Master Chi — are these people actual second generation?”
I told her directly: “These young people have plenty of luxury and comfort, but they lack the ability to protect and grow wealth.”
Why? Because their wealth expressed itself entirely in flashy clothes, expensive cars, and extravagant spending. That made them wealthy failures — wealth had ruined them.
Let this be clearly understood: true wealthy second generation is a group that 99.9999% of ordinary people will never encounter. Whatever some relationship influencer claims, whatever story circulates about a wealthy man throwing cash around at a high-end venue — none of those people are the true second generation. Even if they are the biological children of wealthy parents, they are not the true second generation.
Remember this: second generation is not a title — it represents an entirely new system of operations and logic.
True second generation means the entire family’s resources and wealth orbit around that person. Those who survive on the bread crumbs their parents drop are prodigal sons — not the true second generation.
It’s like Prince Yinreng, the Crown Prince during Emperor Kangxi’s reign. No matter how many times you dressed him in imperial yellow, as long as actual imperial authority wasn’t fully in his hands, he was merely the Crown Prince. And the Crown Prince was not the absolute center of dynastic power.
So here’s what’s interesting: look at a family like the Rens. The roles for each child have clearly been arranged — who inherits the business, who receives focused development, who is free to play. It’s laid out plainly. And yet a bunch of gossipy chatterboxes still speculate: “Oh, that one entered the entertainment industry as some kind of strategic move.” They clearly have no respect for those at the summit. Performers may eclipse ordinary people in fame — but they can’t walk through that particular colored door.
I’ve always believed the inner circle has sharp instincts and makes shrewd decisions. And the evidence from the past seven or eight years supports this: the truly powerful second generation has become genuinely formidable — worth paying serious attention to.
Formidable in this sense: they’ve come to understand that their parents’ playbook no longer works. This era demands expertise, depth, and efficiency. So the true second generation — those whose family assets touch ten figures and who are increasingly holding real family authority — never fight alone.
They’ve built their own teams of loyal retainers: specialized legal counsel, sophisticated financial managers, and skilled social navigators. This has gone entirely beyond what ordinary people can imagine. They don’t just have money — they have genuine capability.
Wealth and capability are two entirely different dimensions of power.
And all of that capability serves the interests of that single heir.
While people outside are still marveling — “Wow, that wealthy family lives in such-and-such luxury estate! That celebrity has so many live-in staff!” — the truly powerful second generation has already successfully made themselves invisible. Their wisdom is enough to completely redirect the public’s gaze.
This is like how you’ll never find genuine top-quality jade at famous retail stores. Everything on display is specifically what they want you to see — what they already know you can afford. What you can’t afford never even makes it to the display case. And the true face of things only reveals itself to those who can generate real mutual benefit.
The New Generation of This Era#
Every kind of ability, every kind of talent, every kind of destiny framework — each one can achieve meaningful success in its corresponding domain. What people truly lack is the right stage that genuinely matches who they are.
This is the Chinese metaphysical philosophy Master Chi has always held.
So here’s something interesting: whenever I’m reading someone’s destiny framework (格局), I never focus purely on fortune cycles (运势). You have an opportunity a decade from now, wealth within five years — so what?
The real core that can transform a destiny and reshape a life is whether you’ve found the stage that truly fits you. Every opera has its roles — the male lead, the female lead, the painted face, the clown — and every one of them has their moment to shine, each one indispensable. The question is: have you figured out which role is yours?
Over these years — the past fifteen years, specifically — I’ve developed one deep conviction: the era that demanded pure mental toughness and omnidirectional social grace has passed. Today, there are countless paths hidden in the fine cracks of the world — subtle, overlooked, yet completely real and available.
In my view, to legitimately call yourself a first generation, a person must achieve at least one of the following:
- Build a legacy business that endures and can be passed to the next generation
- Accumulate meaningful wealth that has sufficient mass to compound and grow
If fifteen or twenty years ago there was essentially only one route — business — today the means to achieve this are abundant beyond measure. Take the most basic example: the one profession everyone sniffs at and dismisses as lowly — financial sales.
On the surface, these people seem to be everywhere — cheap suits, light walking shoes, scraping by on commission without a steady income stream. If that’s your picture, you simply haven’t stood at a high enough vantage point.
The reality is that any circle with collective net worth in the hundreds of millions still depends on financial services. And the so-called “salespeople” in that world look nothing like your stereotype: each one is a steward-level professional with deep expertise in funds, trusts, insurance, and other products — dressed in bespoke suits, moving through prestigious residences, driving respectable vehicles, earning millions annually.
Same profession — sales. What’s the difference? Depth and capability.
So what Master Chi wants to tell you is this: don’t envy that era that appeared to scatter gold and opportunity everywhere. That era’s wealth only lifted a certain number of people. Today’s era is equally full of paths to the top — they simply demand greater cultivation and deeper commitment.
I’m particularly fond of the phrase that swept through China in recent years: craftsman spirit (匠人精神). It represents a commitment to doing something well and doing it right — forever, without compromise. That is the secret to becoming a “first generation” in this era.
Always remember: every era has its own timing (时); every person carries their own fortune (运).
Hold onto them carefully. Don’t betray yourself. Since you’ve already decided to fight — why not fight until you’ve carved out something worth having?
Don’t you think?