Let me be honest with you from the start: getting this article published was genuinely not easy.
I had originally planned to release it in late December. But it got stuck in the content review process multiple times. On top of being a long piece, it went through several rounds of revisions before finally reaching a “clean” state today.
The thing is, there’s nothing particularly sensitive in the content itself. After much reflection, the only explanation I can offer is that the original writing was simply too sharp and pointed. After all, this is an article that could fairly be called an essential primer on the Chinese MBA.
1. If you want to get ahead in China, the most important thing is absolutely not a passion for hard work and grinding. Pure hustle without direction guarantees you will never rise above your station — no matter what industry you’re in, inside or outside any circle, in any field whatsoever.
The most important thing is to calmly and clearly understand what role your particular chess piece plays in the larger game.
No matter how big or small the game, once you understand this, many things suddenly become clear. You’ll know which abilities to develop, and who to invest in building genuine relationships with.
2. Along similar lines, I’ve heard many people claim they’ve “lived clean their whole lives — no involvement in politics.” That line honestly makes me cringe a little.
I especially see this with readers who come to me for their destiny framework (格局) analysis — people who are clearly working hard, but who hit a wall in their mid-thirties to mid-forties and simply stagnate. Then they’ll say something endearing like: “Ah, Master Chi, I just have no talent for office politics.”
What these people need is a noble benefactor (Gui Ren) to set them straight.
I speak directly as a rule, but I have no need to slap people in the face, so I’ll usually turn it around and ask: At the entry level, you’re a cog in the machine — just do your job well. But once you’re stepping up to become a decision-maker, you inevitably become entangled in other people’s interests. Managing those competing interests is political skill — what ordinary people call “office politics.” So tell me: can you really afford to be without that?
3. I also dislike sweeping statements about “Chinese people this, Chinese people that.” But as a practical matter, the biggest problem with our generation of Chinese — roughly the 1960s through 1990s birth cohorts — is a lack of genuine honesty.
First, we are not honest with ourselves. We dress ourselves up in vague, high-minded values and moral posturing. We excuse ourselves with all manner of grandiose justifications. We’re world-class at brainwashing ourselves, yet we flatly refuse to admit that we lack a certain skill, lack the means, lack the intelligence or experience.
Second, we’re not honest with others either. We love taking inexplicable roundabout paths in order to appear sophisticated and dignified — not realizing we’re only making things harder for ourselves.
Frankly, none of this is how people who get big things done operate today.
4. Let’s talk specifically about getting big things done — something most people still can’t quite figure out.
In my view, “doing something big” means spending a few years driving hard toward a goal large enough to deliver serious wealth or move you up a tier in society.
For ordinary people, you’ll be lucky to encounter two or three opportunities in your lifetime to participate in something truly big.
And here’s the key: an ordinary person should never expect to lead a major endeavor from the start. What you must do is attach yourself to noble benefactors and mentors and hitch a ride on their big projects.
Watch more, listen more, learn more. Then scale down the model and execute your own smaller, more manageable version of a big thing. That’s the prudent path.
5. In recent years, there’s been a lot of talk online about “upward networking.” It’s empty, tedious advice — and none of the people giving it have actually pulled it off.
Here’s what actually matters if you want a noble benefactor to recognize you and give you a chance:
Never be the “clever person who thinks they know everything.” Never walk around with the attitude of: “I know this, I know that — don’t take me for a fool, I’m sharp!”
In real life, this type is absolutely everywhere. Two sentences in, any worthwhile benefactor will naturally keep their distance.
Remember: what noble benefactors need from you is deference, validation, admiration, and honesty. Even if you’re not particularly smart, if you show genuine respect and regard, remain humble and eager to learn, and consistently express your gratitude in tangible ways — you may not reach a top-tier benefactor right away, but smaller ones will come without issue.
“But I already am humble and eager to learn — and still no benefactor has helped me.”
Here’s the thing: don’t go by what you think. Go by what the people around you think. If they don’t see it that way, then you’re deceiving yourself again.
6. Another dangerous misconception in this era is the belief that having credentials and ability is enough.
That’s the typical thinking of someone raised in a family stuck at the worker tier — rigid and lacking depth.
Because what this society currently has no shortage of is purely competent people. Today you might write highly efficient code and be a standout among a hundred — but for the right salary, someone will find you a standout among a thousand tomorrow.
Pure competence alone only guarantees you a decent living. It does not guarantee you can do big things.
Doing big things means embodying the five points I laid out above:
- Know your position, understand what others are thinking — especially the decision-makers — and actively align with them.
- Know how to protect your own interests while keeping the entire operation moving forward without disruption.
- Clearly see your own weaknesses and keep evolving to fix them.
- Know your priorities and commit to them single-mindedly.
- Earn others’ recognition and avoid making yourself unwelcome.
So tell me honestly — do you truly check all five of those boxes?
7. The TV drama Blossoms has been a hit recently, capturing the style of that generation of Shanghai merchants.
But let me say something uncomfortable: of that generation of Shanghai businesspeople, very few are still active today. The overwhelming majority have gone bankrupt, been wiped out, lost everything, or ended up behind bars. Especially the ones who were once the flashiest names — almost none of them are comfortable today.
My personal view is that there are both logical and karmic reasons for this.
The logical reason: the bold, gamble-everything personality those people carried was a permanent brand of their era — impossible to change. So when the next waves of transformation came, their instinct was always to double down and bet big. Naturally, very few survived.
The karmic reason: a person’s greatest moment of glory is simply what heaven has allocated. Either you burn at a steady, low light throughout your life, or you blaze brilliantly for a moment — stunning and fleeting. Either way: the greater the fortune you enjoy, the greater the hardship you must pay. That’s karma (因果) — there’s no escaping it.
8. Those seven points above may look like independent ideas, but they all revolve around one core question: how to become capable of doing big things.
So it’s not hard to understand why so many people today still “know all the right principles but can’t seem to live well.”
The fundamental reason is that their lives are consumed by the endless small, fragmented noise of daily existence. The same energy and time get spent — but with no results.
I see this constantly with the many readers who come to me for destiny chart (命盘) readings. They’re intelligent people, mostly. But very few of them actually direct their real energy toward asking: “How do I make a few important things happen in a serious way?” Their precious focus gets wasted.
9. Beyond that, once you’ve moved through one major accomplishment after another, there are two more critical things you must do — or you’ll easily lose everything you’ve built.
I’ve reflected countless times on why waves of newly-risen wealthy people around me have emerged, only to be swept away again just as quickly.
The root causes are two: failing to build a proper foundation at each stage, and failing to keep ascending the social ladder.
10. Building a proper foundation means this: when you earn your first major windfall, do not rush to treat that hard-won capital as ammunition to spend immediately.
As I’ve said before: wealth is the conversion of capability.
When you can produce a first major windfall and your capabilities are solid, more smaller amounts will continue to flow in steadily afterward. Those subsequent streams are your actual operating capital — your business ammunition going forward.
That first major windfall, on the other hand, should be converted into solid assets — your secure fallback position.
For a long time, real estate in the top-tier and major second-tier cities was the right asset. If your parents were wealthy early and picked up property anywhere in China between 2000 and 2015 — even if prices have dropped badly since — those properties are still rock-solid assets, generating rental income like a comfortable cash cow.
Right now, genuinely good assets are hard to find. That’s nobody’s fault — your parents simply missed that wave.
11. Continuously ascending the social ladder means performing constant minor surgery on yourself.
Many people fail to hold onto their success because they become overly dependent on the thinking that got them lucky in the first place — never seizing the chance for a comprehensive evolution.
For instance, when you’ve earned your first 50 million, you should immediately immerse yourself in learning: business management, financial knowledge, regulatory requirements, and the various unwritten rules of your industry. In other words, you must evolve from a nouveau riche upstart into a legitimate businessperson or proper small-scale operator.
This process is actually simple: keep reflecting on every detail of how you handle yourself and your relationships, and keep cementing the habit of steady self-improvement.
“Oh, I see — being brash and showy is a mistake. Got it, I’ll change.” “Oh, I see — hiring only people you personally like is a mistake. Got it, I’ll change.” “Oh, I see — spending recklessly is a mistake. Got it, I’ll change.” “Oh, I see — having no plan is a mistake. Got it, I’ll change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change. Change.”
Every morning you wake up, approach it like a scalpel going into living flesh — cut away a little more each day, until your whole way of thinking reaches a higher standard of competence. Then keep going.
12. Once you’ve established this rhythm of doing big things, building foundations, and constant improvement, you’ll find that most of life’s problems take care of themselves.
The one remaining concern is your relationships with the six relations (六亲) — your close family. These need some attention too.
What I mean is not that once you’ve made progress in life, you should immediately cut off your parents, kick out your spouse, or use your success as license to look down on them and belittle them daily.
I believe the family members and blood relations around you are not, at their core, bad people.
The reason they can’t match where your thinking has gone is that they never had the same determination or the experience of earning success. Given that, learn to tailor your approach to each person.
If your parents are stubborn — if even after your success they still try to exert strong control over you — learn to manage them diplomatically. Agree verbally without committing yourself to action.
If your partner, after your success, is still living the same drifting lifestyle as before, sit down and explain clearly: the family you’ve built together is not what it once was, and you need them to grow and change alongside you — and you’ll guide them through it step by step.
Do not follow the advice of certain online voices who say that all truly successful people cut off their family ties. That’s genuinely absurd and dangerous thinking.
People who have never experienced real wealth don’t understand: once that behavior becomes habit, it will deliver catastrophic damage to your life. The ability to lead and manage those around you is the most basic skill of anyone who has truly risen. And having your closest family members stab you in the back from behind? That’s the worst possible outcome.
13. After everything I’ve said, there’s only one response I fear from you: “Wow, Master Chi — getting ahead sounds so hard. Maybe I should just give up.”
Friends, let me be completely direct: I have no expectation that your future will bring great wealth or enormous fortune. In all likelihood, no matter how hard you work, you’ll land somewhere in the ordinary range — same as most people.
But there is a world of difference between an ordinary person who is doing reasonably well and an ordinary person who is barely scraping by.
Remember: working a regular job is, in its own way, genuinely difficult.
It’s just that because you’re the one receiving tasks — not issuing them — you don’t develop a sharp nose for crisis. You rarely truly understand what skills you lack, or whether your industry’s earning power is rising or falling.
As a salaried employee, you only feel the water rising when it’s already flooding into the hull and lapping at your ankles. By then, it’s too late.
Put plainly: regular employment not only offers no path upward, it will also gradually make you duller and less perceptive — stripping away the alertness you should have.
Am I telling you to go start a business right now?
Absolutely not. In this current climate, anyone stubborn enough to pour money into a new business will almost certainly just find faster ways to lose it.
But beyond money, you also have energy and time.
14. Honestly, there are no real secrets in this world. In the end, it all comes down to execution.
As an ordinary person living in any major city, you almost certainly know three or four people in your social circle who run their own businesses.
Here’s what to do: ask for nothing material in return, pay nothing out of pocket — just show up. Volunteer, straightforwardly, to help on weekends. Handle some small tasks, mind the shop, whatever — the point is to be doing something real.
Don’t think of it as unpaid labor. Your return is experience and perspective.
If you pay attention, you will gradually discover how much this world contains that you never noticed from behind a desk. Business development, operations, management, relationships, logistics, administration, finance, HR, client relations, marketing, strategy — in every single one of these areas, there is so much you need to learn.
You’ll realize that the reason you’ve only ever been an employee is that your abilities really were only sufficient for tightening screws.
Then you’ll become increasingly practical — and you’ll know exactly what to work on next.
From that point, you’ll have crossed a real threshold: from pure employee to someone who has begun to think of themselves as an asset. That alone is an enormous leap forward.
15. Since the New Year, the number of people reaching out to thank me has been overwhelming.
Over the past three or four years, I’ve issued what amounted to iron orders to nearly every reader who came to me to have their destiny read and their life mapped out. I pushed every white-collar reader, without exception, to sacrifice their evenings and weekends doing exactly what I described above.
The results have been good. Nobody got particularly rich — but nearly everyone experienced a dramatic acceleration in capability. Most of them have now started their own small side ventures.
And that alone — just that — is enough to give someone one more lifeline in this cold season.
Finally, I hope that after reading this, you don’t simply walk away thinking: “That was a great article.”
Take the content and turn it into fuel for concrete action. That effort is purely for yourself.
I believe you are capable of achieving real results. I look forward to the time when — while everyone else is still sighing and lamenting — you will have already moved up to a new level.
Keep going. We’re in this together.
Master Chi — “Wishing you the good fortune you deserve”