Please take good care of yourself and be sure to treat yourself well—don’t be stingy or tight-fisted with yourself. That’s the only way to get rich. If you don’t learn how to spend money, how can you earn big money and experience the joy it brings? Only then will you have a greater desire to possess it. In traditional Chinese narratives, the older generation often glorifies hardship, talking about how difficult life was for the previous generation and how much they suffered for the sake of their families, in an attempt to use that suffering to teach their children a lesson. This is wrong—the hardships you’ve endured have nothing to do with your children. Most children are born into this world with an inexhaustible supply of...The pain of...commencementput away

The lines that really stuck with me were: “If you want to be aloof, be aloof to the very end—free of desires and expectations. If you want to engage with the world, put your pride aside. The worst thing is to end up as a half-baked hybrid. This world isn’t here for you to preach about morality and righteousness; it’s here for you to learn and listen to the voices of the strong.”

What we should teach children are the right values and worldview—not use hardship to make them feel unworthy. Constantly complaining about being poor to your children ≠ teaching them to be frugal. It only breeds an inferiority complex. If you truly want to teach a child to be thrifty, start at the source of production. First, treat your child to a bit of luxury—buy them a slightly more expensive iPhone so they can enjoy it—and then take them to visit an electronics factory in the south. Only by earning that money back and engaging in production and manufacturing will they understand how hard it is to make a living. Without firsthand experience, in this era of mobile payments, people...Not particularly concerned about money.commencementput away

Execution is the sole criterion for identifying the strong.

Even among men, there are many different labels: “jerk,” “good guy,” “decent guy,” and “turn-off.” What label would you like to be given? Dignity and respect are always something you give yourself; as long as you don’t agree, no one has the right to tell you what to do.

The technological explosion and the rapid advancement of AI will not bring humanity the ideal benefits—such as reduced working hours—because many countries in the 21st century are, in reality, still akin to slave societies: on the surface, they are capitalist; in reality, they are ruled by feudal slave masters. The essence of capital’s use of purchasing power is to acquire the output of individual labor and vitality (lifespan).

The lives of ordinary people are never at peace; whether rich or poor, very few are born without flaws (the inherent suffering of one’s family of origin, as well as the spiritual poverty and short-sightedness brought on by material living). Very few people, like Ding Yuanying from *The Way of Heaven*, possess the ability to contemplate the essence of things. In real life, I believe Duan Yongping’s business acumen resembles that of Ding Yuanying from *The Way of Heaven*; he perfectly exploited the weaknesses of human nature to conduct business, just as he did when investing in Pop Mart.