Only when you have witnessed it with your own eyes will you understand that certain truths can genuinely alter the course of a life.
After reading destiny charts for half a lifetime, I have encountered more human stories than I can count. It would be impossible to say I haven’t arrived at some profound conclusions and insights.
And precisely because I have come to know so many people deeply, I understand more clearly than ever: if you don’t grasp certain truths early, you will pay for it with a lifetime of suffering. But once you do grasp them, they become the secret weapon that puts wings on your ambitions.
A life of abundance and fulfillment often comes down to knowing things that most people simply don’t know.
Every point in this article has been distilled from individuals with a net worth starting at nine figures — or those who occupy positions of real institutional power.
Read this to the end, and you will understand what it truly takes to rise and change your standing in this life.
The First Realm: Keep Your Word, Pursue Mutual Benefit
Don’t let the simplicity of this fool you. There are still plenty of fools who can’t even manage basic integrity and reciprocity.
People like this have a character problem at the core — forget about wisdom or insight.
Remember this: if you want to become great, you must learn to operate on mutual benefit — shared wins, aligned interests, collective gain.
Only when this kind of integrity thinking is deeply rooted in your heart will your path through life grow smoother and smoother.
Over the years, Master Chi has encountered many who thrived and many who fell into ruin. The deepest impression is this: those who thrive almost always have first-class character. That doesn’t mean they’re without self-interest — but at a minimum, when you work with them, you can trust them with your back. They won’t take advantage of you or strike when you’re vulnerable. When things go well, you share the gains; when things go wrong, each bears their own consequences.
These are the only kinds of people you will keep choosing to work with, and their resources will keep expanding as a result.
By contrast, the people who are sliding downhill — you can smell the rot on them the moment you meet them. Everything is about themselves. They want all the gains and none of the responsibility.
Work with someone like this once, get burned once — you’ll never work with them again. And these people will, as if by design, narrow their own path until there’s nowhere left to go — isolated, abandoned, at a dead end. Their good days are never destined to last.
Every high-caliber person Master Chi has known — in the halls of power, in business, in the wider world — their first rule of conduct is the same: Does this benefit only me, or does it benefit everyone involved?
If it’s purely self-serving, they refuse to do it. They’d rather save that energy for something mutually beneficial, because only what benefits everyone can make a person genuinely and sustainably powerful and prosperous.
And when others come across good resources, they’ll naturally think of you first — that’s how lasting shared prosperity is built.
In my own climb out of the valleys of life, whenever I’ve needed capital for a business or investment — even in the millions — a word or two is usually enough to raise it within a day or two. That’s because people know my character is my firmest guarantee. If I’m asking, it means I’ve already weighed the risks and interests on all sides. So they don’t need to worry.
This is the first realm Master Chi hopes you can attain.
The Second Realm: Outstanding Capability — Strength in Both Mind and Action
Talent, skill, ability — none of these words hit quite as directly as real strength.
So what is real strength? It’s simply the inner power that actually exists — the ability to solve real problems.
I often encounter people in my public channel who are full of grand ambitions but lack the basic capability to match them, weeping and complaining that they’ve never been recognized or trusted, stuck their whole lives in bottom-tier roles selling their labor.
When I give them a brief nudge in response, these same people will push their luck, demanding I map out a complete development plan for them. It’s exhausting.
The truth is, all these people share one fundamental problem: their capability is nowhere near their desires.
They don’t have the vision to spot business opportunities at a glance. They don’t have the grit to push through when things get hard. They don’t have the self-awareness to identify where they went wrong and improve step by step.
But their capacity for envying others’ success and resenting others’ wealth? More than enough.
Pitiable. Pathetic.
How could people like this ever have a chance to rise? Even if you handed them an opportunity, they couldn’t use it.
The method for building real strength isn’t complicated — it comes down to rivers of sweat and mountains of books. One: have you been tempered by enough real-world experience? Two: have you absorbed enough high-quality knowledge and wisdom? You need both. You can’t have a gap in either.
And if a person has both — how could they possibly struggle to build a career? Even without a sudden windfall opportunity, steady, solid progress is simply inevitable.
Master Chi has never once seen a truly capable person be buried by so-called bad luck for more than a year or two.
The Third Realm: Clear Thinking, Top-Down Perspective
A person with integrity, mutual-benefit thinking, outstanding ability, and the discipline to keep sharpening themselves — they simply cannot remain mediocre. At minimum, they’ll be part of this society’s core elite, respected and accomplished.
But to climb further in rank, they must develop what I call chess master thinking — a mature, penetrating worldview.
Chess master thinking means habitually approaching everything from the highest vantage point.
Take real estate: don’t get caught in the weeds like everyone else, obsessing over price fluctuations and loan rates — those conversations go nowhere. Instead, ask: where will the highest-quality population and their wealth flow across the country? Which cities have the commercial foundation, industrial planning, administrative capacity, and education and healthcare infrastructure to attract and keep those people? Within those cities, which districts and zones are the cream of the crop — most attractive to quality residents?
Or take stocks: don’t fall into the trap of obsessing over K-lines and price data like a retail investor being harvested. Instead ask: behind these positions, who is building them and driving them? Are the big players trying to harvest retail investors, or are they maneuvering against other well-resourced forces? If you enter now, are you the hunter or the prey?
Once you develop chess master thinking, you’ll quickly be able to place yourself in the shoes of the top players in your industry. Things that once confused and frustrated you will suddenly make sense. Opportunities that were once invisible will reveal themselves clearly.
But if you never develop this thinking — no matter how good your character or how strong your skills — your ceiling will be a comfortable mid-level management role. You’ll never break through into the core decision-making layer.
If you can’t break through that ceiling, you’ll spend your entire life as a cog in the machine — and never become the kind of person that draws resources toward you.
The Fourth Realm: Seek Fortune, Avoid Harm — Do Only Good
Even if your abilities are outstanding, your thinking sharp, and your reputation solid — if what you’re doing is harmful to society, or if you’re working the edges of legality and ethics, your downfall is only a matter of time.
There has never been such a thing as constantly walking along the riverbank and never getting your feet wet.
Buddhism speaks of karma (因果); Daoism speaks of the will of Heaven. All harm and wrongdoing will eventually be settled. This is inevitable.
So the truly intelligent have always walked the straight path from the very beginning — and never let themselves get close to danger. Their journey may be slower, but nothing ever goes catastrophically wrong. The only variable is how much they earn — not whether they’ll end up safe and sound.
Take investing: short-term speculation and market manipulation can’t beat long-term value investing and trend-following over time. Wealth built on others’ losses carries its own karmic weight. The former does produce the occasional tycoon, but those who land safely and finish with both wealth and a full life? Extraordinarily rare.
Those who commit to value investing and long-term trends? In ten years, they have both meaningful wealth and a fulfilling life.
Of course, seeking fortune and avoiding harm has another meaning: always associate with people doing legitimate business and honest work — and keep your distance from those chasing quick dirty money and risky shortcuts. Because people influence each other. Many descend gradually, without even noticing, as they’re pulled into the orbit of certain negative Chi fields (气场). Knowing this, draw the line between yourself and “harm” from the very beginning — and draw close only to what is “fortunate.”
As for doing only good — that’s even simpler. Let no harsh words, complaints, or aggressive speech leave your mouth. Take no provocative actions. Let your mouth carry only warmth and care. Let your actions offer only support and help.
As for those who provoke or hurt you — step back, let it go. A vicious dog will eventually meet a mad dog. Let them tear into each other.
And whenever you encounter someone around you worth helping — offer a small kindness, a gesture of goodwill. Accumulating virtue through small acts of good is the highest-return form of long-term thinking.
Every time I finish writing a long piece on the art of life and conduct, I distill the core into a final summary for review. This time is no different. Four realms:
The First Realm: Keep Your Word, Pursue Mutual Benefit The Second Realm: Outstanding Capability — Strength in Both Mind and Action The Third Realm: Clear Thinking, Top-Down Perspective The Fourth Realm: Seek Fortune, Avoid Harm — Do Only Good
They are each other’s foundation, advancing step by step, ultimately forming a coherent logic of excellence — and the shared code of conduct among the truly capable.
Master Chi’s hope is that these four realms become a reference point and a ladder for your own ascent.