Yesterday, a message arrived in my inbox — exceptionally humble in tone, yet riddled with problems that most people wouldn’t notice without looking carefully.
It went something like this: “Master, I’ve been a loyal reader of yours for many years. First, I want to thank you for your tireless writing — it has allowed someone as ordinary as me to encounter so many high-level insights and wisdom. Precisely because I am a completely, thoroughly ordinary person with absolutely nothing remarkable about me, I truly envy the successful people you write about — those who can pursue their goals with undivided focus. Every time I see those men and women achieving things I could never reach in an entire lifetime, and doing so with such effortless grace, I feel both admiration and envy in equal measure. But I know full well that I don’t have their gifts or their opportunities. So I humbly ask for a word of guidance, Master — any advice you might have for someone as ordinary as me. I am deeply, deeply grateful.”
I originally intended to dash off a few quick words in reply. But once I put pen to paper, it turned into a short essay. That’s fine — I’ll share it as today’s article.
Reply:
Hello there, friend.
First, I’d like to point out one significant problem I see in you: excessive self-deprecation. You’ve placed yourself in an overly humble position — and this is actually a fatal flaw.
Once you grow accustomed to this posture, you will instinctively cultivate a deeply pessimistic mindset — one that whispers, “Success and good fortune belong to other people. I’m not worthy.” This mindset will erode your confidence, your drive to act, and your ambition across every domain of your life.
Take note: the “wealth” within one’s destiny comes in different forms. Some can be seized immediately and pocketed on the spot; others require patience, dormancy, and extensive preparation. So whatever you do, don’t let self-doubt poison your mindset at the critical moment — don’t let defeatism cause you to fumble the wealth fortune (财运) that was already within your grasp. That would be a genuine waste.
Second, regardless of whether you think of yourself as an ordinary person or just a commoner, you must correct one fundamental misconception: never assume that others are richer than you because they are smarter or more naturally gifted.
That’s not it. Your actual intelligence is roughly the same as theirs — in fact, your intelligence and intuition may even be slightly sharper.
So why is it that after years of exhausting effort, you still haven’t broken through?
Honestly, it was only after encountering vast numbers of ordinary people — and countless people living in genuine hardship — that I came to understand: the closer you are to the bottom rung of society, the heavier the gravitational pull holding you down. And the heavier that pull, the harder it becomes to escape its grip.
Let me put that in plainer terms: the lower you are, the more chaotic, petty nonsense clutters your life — and the harder it becomes to quiet your mind and focus on doing one important thing well.
Take this example: you live in a 50-square-meter old apartment. After work every day, you’re doing laundry, cooking, handling all manner of household chores. Your partner and children fill the space with noise that disrupts your thoughts and fractures your concentration. In those few hours at home, your mind simply cannot settle. You cannot think anything through fully.
Flip that around: if your living space were 120 square meters, you’d have a corner that’s entirely your own. You’d still have chores, yes — but your efficiency and mental state would be several times better.
And this is just the difference between the lower and middle tiers in terms of living space alone — to say nothing of all the other daily frictions.
But here’s what I really want to tell you: if you are an ordinary person who wants to change your destiny through your own efforts — if you’re tired of working yourself to the bone every single day and still coming up with almost nothing to show for it — then you must first learn to practice subtraction in your life.
You must reclaim every drop of unnecessary energy and time.
Like a person crossing a desert who must guard every last bit of water — there is no room for waste.
Because only when you’ve reclaimed that energy and time will you have the capacity to review where you went wrong in the past, and to map out what to do next.
Let me use myself as an example. In my writing and sharing, I often mention fine wines I’ve enjoyed, rare delicacies I’ve tasted, luxurious hotels I’ve experienced.
But what you don’t know is that in daily life, my breakfast and lunch are almost always just oatmeal with milk — or leftover rice from the night before, reheated with hot water, served with fermented tofu and salted duck egg.
Why? Because these things take ten minutes — sometimes five — to prepare. Leftover rice plus boiling water: done.
What I’m protecting is the time and energy I save — the unbroken rhythm of thinking that began in the morning, what some call the vital flow state (心流).
The return on this: most weeks, I have at least five days where I can spend several hours each day in deep, undistracted thought — on investments, business ventures, relationships, and more. The decisions that emerge from that quality of thinking are high-caliber and comprehensively considered.
So let me ask you: when was the last time you sat quietly and thought through a single problem — really thought it through?
I suspect it was measured in minutes. Or perhaps you didn’t think much at all, and just let things unfold however they would.
So how could you possibly develop the depth and breadth of judgment in your life decisions that I bring to mine?
This is why, for ordinary people, subtraction is everything. No matter what those around you think — you must learn to conserve your energy and deploy it on what matters most.
Let me say that again: deploy it on what matters most.
Here’s a direct contrast — this is why some people exhaust themselves like overloaded camels yet remain desperately poor, while others seem to move through life with ease and never miss a wealth-building opportunity:
He has a clear division with his wife — she handles the household and the children’s education, he pours everything into building wealth. You and your partner bicker constantly, argue over who helps with homework and who does which chores, and have a blowout fight every few days.
She and her husband support each other, don’t burden one another, handle their own matters independently, and calmly consult each other on major decisions. You and your partner push responsibilities back and forth all day — grown adults in your thirties and forties still keeping score of who contributes more, letting it drain your emotions completely.
He lives a clean, focused life — finishes work efficiently, then exercises and reads, then learns from high-quality peers. You live a chaotic, fragmented life — after work comes chores, after chores comes aimless leisure, your energy spent down to the last drop.
Now tell me — do you honestly believe that people living these different lives will end up at the same heights?
Save it. Stop daydreaming. You cannot run ten kilometers dragging dead weight. You cannot run a marathon when you’re already spent. All that does is raise your risk of collapse — and earn you nothing.
So you must practice subtraction. And always run your life against this one core question: Does my current way of living actually help me advance my work and pursue my wealth fortune?
No? Then change it.
Cut from the people and obligations that eat your energy. Decisively and completely.
Evolution is the clearest direction for ordinary people. Subtraction is the most grounded strategy for ordinary people.
Think about it — is there really anyone in this world who pours their whole being into their work and development, and still ends up stuck at the bottom their entire life?
Even in the worst case, don’t they at least get by and accumulate a few million to their name?
Is that hard? It isn’t. It’s like scoring in the top ten out of a class of fifty — talent doesn’t even factor in at that level. As long as your general direction is right, it’s genuinely not difficult.
The real issue is your environment and the people around you.
If you’re surrounded by high achievers — or even just decent, driven people — that kind of life naturally becomes attainable. Breaking free and moving up is just a matter of time.
But if everyone around you can barely manage their own lives, you’ll become the odd one out. You’ll face skepticism, mockery, dismissal, and belittlement from all sides. Staying clear-headed alone is genuinely difficult — the odds are you’ll be dragged down along with them.
And then your destiny (命), your fortune (运), your rhythm, your state of being — all of it falls apart.
Anyway, I’ve said what needed saying. The logic is as clear as I can make it. How much you take from it — that’s entirely up to you.