Student Question:
Master, hello! During this year-end period I’ve been frequently revisiting your past articles, and every single word has helped me grow — I want to express my gratitude first.
What moved me most, actually, was the single mother you wrote about in your last article. Her grounded, feet-on-the-ground approach truly impressed me — because, truth be told, I am also an ordinary single mother, raising two children here in Hefei, a city that’s decent enough to call home.
So if Master doesn’t mind, I was wondering whether you might be willing to offer some guidance to us ordinary people — on how we might carve out our own path to financial independence?
If you’re able to, I would be truly, deeply grateful!
Master Chi’s Response:
Hello, brave young woman. To your question, I only need one sentence: Take the first step. Manage yourself. Keep reviewing.
Don’t let the simplicity fool you — Master Chi can tell you with full confidence that no MBA classroom, no wealth-building program, no celebrated business classic can match these three phrases for cutting straight to the heart of the matter.
Because of the circles I move in and the nature of my work, I’ve crossed paths with a great many people on the path to wealth. Without exception, every single one of them who succeeded — who built a solid income for themselves and their families — has lived by exactly these principles.
It’s the end of the year. I’ve stolen a little leisure. Allow me to unpack this simply.
The critical first step — is the first step itself.
Reading ten thousand books cannot compare to walking ten thousand miles. Not because book knowledge is worthless, but because once you’re on that road, it becomes very hard to stop.
Take the single mother in my last article, or the many friends who’ve come to me for a destiny reading on their wealth fortune — beyond giving them a thorough analysis of their destiny chart (命盘), I always assign them a concrete task and require them to report back to me a year later.
What kind of task? Simple: once they know where their wealth fortune lies, I deliberately force them to take the first step toward it.
If your property sector is strong, I require you to tell me six months later what specific new insights you’ve developed about real estate in your city.
If your wealth palace is excellent, I require you to immediately put a small amount of money into a trial investment — and report your reflections and summary a year on.
A year later they may still be complete beginners. That’s fine. Once you’ve had a taste, once that first step is taken, a person doesn’t stop.
Take that single mother — she started on Xiaohongshu (China’s lifestyle platform, also known as Little Red Book) with a clumsy little video. But once that first step was taken, she couldn’t stop.
Video quality not good enough? She taught herself filming and editing.
Content not compelling enough? She studied popular creators and honed her scripts.
No idea how to market? She started with the simplest approach — WeChat transactions.
Everything grew from that one first step she took. And it just kept getting easier.
I’ve also encountered some hopeless cases — people who spent every day talking about chasing this trend or going there to build wealth, but who ultimately let their own mental drama get in the way of everything.
A year passes, two years pass. Ask them if they’ve started putting anything into practice, and they deflect with excuse after excuse. People like that are simply not destined to catch their wealth fortune (财运).
The second principle: managing your own energy well.
I often see people complaining that time is too limited, that daily life leaves no room to get things done. But are they really as overwhelmed as they claim?
Busy, yes — but not so overwhelmed they can’t function.
Take many young people: they say they don’t rest enough and have no energy for side projects. They do work hard at their day jobs. But look closely and you’ll find they’re spending their precious weekends on entertainment and leisure that yields nothing.
Or take many mothers: they say childcare leaves no room for anything else, that their careers have stalled. But look closely and you’ll find there are actually many scattered pockets of time throughout the day that could be redirected — yet they’re spent watching dramas and shopping online.
We often say: poor people should stretch every yuan as far as it will go, making the most of what they have.
The same applies to anyone trying to build new wealth fortune. Guard your time. Don’t let it slip away.
Just look at that single mother — raising her children entirely alone, with no help from either set of grandparents. How did she manage to accomplish so much?
By treasuring every fragment of free time. Whenever she had a moment, she’d immediately look at what others in her space were doing, borrowing ideas, studying their approaches. The moment her child fell asleep, she’d dive straight into editing and scheduling videos — not a second wasted.
At its core, it comes down to a simple trade-off: your leisure hours, or your new wealth fortune.
The reason so many people can’t build anything, can’t add even a little more to their lives, is that they fail to manage their own energy — or frankly, they’ve never even noticed that those brief pockets of idle time could be exchanged for something far more valuable.
The third and most important principle: commit to ongoing self-review.
“I never realized before just how much time and energy I actually had. I also never realized that what my children and I truly needed was real, tangible wealth — not the self-congratulation that comes from pouring enormous time into the parent-child relationship.”
These are the words the single mother spoke to me from the heart during a later consultation, after she had achieved both wealth and happiness — reflecting on her annual fortune cycle (流年).
On the surface, it sounds like a simple complaint. In essence, it is a total examination and rejection of her former naive self.
Very few people are capable of this.
Whether in investing or in business, it all comes down to self-renewal. Only by constantly identifying your own shortcomings can you do better — and earn more. Only by continually asking where you’ve wasted time and energy can you redirect those resources toward something more worthwhile.
If you remain stagnant and complacent, in the world of investing you will eventually be harvested like leeks (a Chinese term for retail investors who get repeatedly fleeced), and in business you will be weeded out as a weakling.
The sad truth is: how many people in this world are truly capable of this kind of sustained self-examination?
Very few. And so only a very small number of people are able to create their own wealth independently — without a company, without a boss watching over them.
I’ve spent a great deal of time with both wealthy and struggling people.
One pattern I find genuinely fascinating: wealthy people always come to explore what they’re still not doing well enough, what they could still improve.
Those struggling in poverty, on the other hand, mostly come to tell me at length — in their messages, in their follow-ups — just how excellent, how smart, how hardworking they are. And yet they still can’t make money.
Put the two side by side, and the difference speaks for itself.
To close, Master Chi wants to leave the time with you. Sit with these words: Take the first step. Manage yourself. Keep reviewing.
Then — if you don’t mind — I hope you’ll share in the comments: what goal are you going to work toward? What will your first step be? Think of it as a promise to yourself, and a source of anticipation.
Master Chi will respond with encouragement and a few simple suggestions.