3.1 |Chapter 3 Success is Predestined
Chapter 3 | Success is Predestined: The Metaphor of the Great Tree and the Mushroom
In this chapter, we will seriously address the critical question left hanging in the previous one: If successology is not a science that can clearly prescribe "input-output" and cannot guarantee success for everyone, why is it that some people study successology and indeed succeed?
I. A Remark from a Tow Truck Driver: Must One Accept Their Fate?
Before answering this, I’d like to start with a small incident that happened during a recent trip back to China. Because I had been working in Silicon Valley for over a year, one of the cars at my home in Shenzhen—a Mercedes-Benz—had been sitting idle in the garage for a long time.
After I returned, I took it out for a drive to a roadside restaurant. When I finished my meal and tried to start the ignition, the car simply wouldn't start. I had just arrived and hadn't officially returned to the office yet, so I couldn't arrange things through my assistant immediately. Left with no choice, I called the dealership. As a VIP client, they promptly sent a driver to tow the car.
The driver was a man in his fifties from Sichuan, exceptionally talkative. On the way back to the dealership, he shared stories about his hometown, known as the "Land of Lemons." He taught me: "Don’t pick the pretty lemons; those are usually coated in pesticides. Choose the ones that look a bit ugly on the surface." This led him to a very Chinese piece of folk wisdom: Many things that look beautiful on the outside are actually toxic; the truly safe and good things often don't look that impressive.
He suggested that in life and business, one must learn the principle of "Reversion is the movement of the Tao"—to think and choose in reverse.
Gradually, he began to talk about his generation. He said many of them had been "fooled" and "delayed" their entire lives by China’s high housing prices. His tone held a mix of indignation and the quiet resignation of someone who had seen through it all. Listening to him, I was deeply moved. Here was a man you would ordinarily dismiss as just a "mechanic," yet many of his judgments, metaphors, and emotions were strikingly close to the things I had been contemplating for years.
At that moment, I realized: thinkers are everywhere in China; they just don't always write books.
As we talked, he turned to the subject of success. He said: "No matter how successful a person's career is, if they haven't educated their children well, they haven't actually succeeded." This naturally brought us back to the theme of this book—the true definition of "success."
Just as we arrived at the dealership, he sighed deeply and said something that serves as the perfect opening for this chapter:
"I’ve spent my whole life striving and being competitive. But in the end, I realized—man must accept his fate! Most of a person's life is predetermined. No matter how much we learn or how much we toss and turn, in the end, we cannot escape our destiny!"
II. Destiny as a Universal Human Intuition
Indeed, Chinese people have a deep-seated belief in "Fate" (Ming). This is why the profession of fortune-telling has thrived for thousands of years in China. People visit temples and shrines to draw lots and ask about their future. The I Ching has endured for millennia, and often, the more power and status a person holds, the more they believe in this. Nearly every tycoon, powerful official, or celebrity in China has their own metaphysical advisor.
They consult these masters on "luck" before making major decisions, participating in rituals to change their names or alter their fortunes.
But this isn't unique to the Chinese. Systems of "destiny-reading" are highly developed worldwide. The West has Tarot cards and astrology; India has a vast Vedic astrology tradition; Japan has countless forms of fortune-telling. Regardless of the form, the essence remains: humans want to know their destiny in advance.
Behind this lies a shared premise: we all secretly believe that destiny exists.
Western classical mythology expresses the same idea. Take the story of Oedipus—it is essentially the tale of a man desperately trying to outrun a prophecy, only to walk straight into it. The more you try to bypass it, the more you find yourself on the path that was written long ago.
Thus, "destiny" is a common intuition shared across time and cultures. Every person seems to be born with an invisible "script." Everyone is inherently different from the start.
More ironically, many who firmly believe that "man can conquer heaven" may, in their very struggle to "change their fate," merely be faithfully following the "fate-changing path" already arranged for them. Their rebellion itself exists within the trajectory of their destiny.
