Doing the Right Thing

Good deeds don’t always earn good rewards, and bad deeds don’t always go unrewarded. What does this tell us? First, that what a person gets in life is a matter of chance rather than pursuit — it rests with heaven; it rests with fate. Second, that doing good doesn’t guarantee good results. Most people these days don’t do good for goodness’ sake. Deep in their minds sits one entrenched idea: the more good deeds I do, the more money I’ll make. That brand of utilitarianism is usually wrong, and it leads people astray.

Don’t imagine that praying at a temple will bring you good results. If worship could deliver good luck — if it could make wishes come true — ordinary people would never make it past the temple gate.

If neither good deeds nor bad ones can decide the outcome, then what can? The answer: only doing the right thing brings the right result. What counts as the right thing? I’m keeping that deliberately vague — all the better to wriggle out of explaining it — because the explanation itself is far too complicated. Different matters call for different methods, and different fields have different ways of carrying oneself in the world.

All I know is this: when it comes to investing, the right thing means not speculating, not believing yourself invincible, not getting carried away when you’re making money or dejected when you’re losing it, and holding for the long term (which, in practice, most people cannot do).

It is not praying at temples or making wishes, and it is not posting something upbeat and optimistic on WeChat Moments — because that stands for nothing. It only shows that your heart is empty, and that you need to post something to tell everyone: I am not empty.

May you and I live out our whole lives as ordinary mortals — healthy in body, at peace with ourselves, calm in our days, full and happy — none of it having anything to do with money.

Beijing