Starting a Business and Investing Both Happen Naturally, So There Is No Need to Agonize

There are two kinds of entrepreneurship: one is driven by personal ego, conceit, and the need to prove oneself, dabbling in role-play; the other goes with the flow of circumstances.

The great-man view of history and the Whig view of history always portray entrepreneurship as defying fate and changing one’s destiny, as human will triumphing over nature. This is childish and ignorant.

Entrepreneurship is destiny. When the timing, circumstances, and people align, you can feel the calling; connections from every direction are pushing you forward. Like Li Shimin’s rise to power, Zhao Kuangyin being draped in the yellow robe of an emperor, or Liu Bang being acclaimed as the leader of all. Like Yu Donglai’s supermarkets, Zhang Xue’s motorcycle company, and Zhang Xuefeng’s educational admissions consulting company.

Investing is even more a matter of things unfolding naturally, a kind of entanglement of connections and karmic obstructions. Deep connection is also what matters most in value investing.

So there is no need to agonize over it.

Many people have “Silicon Valley bipolar disorder” and “FOMO.” They see others starting businesses and making fortunes through venture capital amid the AI wave, and imagine them to be gods, capable of infallible calculations, omniscient and omnipotent. Their preoccupations with elitism and social Darwinism are activated, setting off feelings of inferiority and superiority, elated one moment and depressed the next. It is just karmic obstructions.