老驥伏櫪，志在千里；

烈士暮年，壯心不已。

An old war-horse may be stabled,

Yet still it longs to gallop a thousand li;

And a noble-hearted man though advanced in years

Never abandons his proud aspirations.

— Cao Cao

I had a fun problem this year.

What do I do with all the money I make?

I know, it sounds stupid.

But it’s a real issue, once you start making money, on a consistent basis, with high cashflow.

At first, I did what every “new money“ bandit does.

Buy and do everything I’ve wanted as a kid, and some more.

Luxury travel, designer clothes, jewellery, taking friends out to expensive dinners, and the list goes on…

But, as with all things materialistic.

There comes a point where you get BORED of it.

So I needed other outlets.

And that’s when I set my eye on the stock market.

But I’ve seen and heard of all the money losthubr…

The gurus promising riches overnight…

The plethora of videos, content and books on the finance world.

Most of them are garbage.

But a few are ok.

True to my gambler’s heart, I wanted to create my own understanding of the stock market.

I was utterly convinced, with typical human hubris, that I could beat the market and be one of the few who can make it work.

I’m happy to share that besides my recent -40k USD blunder I wrote about in one of my recent letters…

I’ve still managed to come out on top with a sweet $84,634.77 in realised gains.

Once you breathe that rarified air of success.

It never leaves you.

Becoming rich makes you money, sure…

It’s one of the rewards for your hard work.

But a bigger, better reward is the person you become.

Succeeding in anything follows an almost universal process.

That’s why lottery winners lose all their money, with no hopes of ever making it back.

That’s why the freelancer, never makes it 10, 15 or even 50k per month.

It’s why the one hit crypto wonder loses it all in the end.

They had success, but didn’t become a person of success.

And knowing how to take a loss, is a big part of it.

Which brings me to…

Sounds incredibly dumb and obvious.

“Duh…“

But hey, as an advertiser, having a great product was NEVER my top priority.

All I ever cared about was making money the instant my promotion launches.

And that mentality, contrary to popular belief, has served me well.

But it’s time to shed that phase.

All great companies were created on the fact that they solved great problems.

That made me think.

What makes a great product?

It’s a simple question, but if you think about it, it’s quite hard to answer.

By looking at the products I use on a daily basis…

My opinion of it right now is this:

It makes the customer’s life easier, better and delivers on the promised result.

So whatever my next venture will be.

I’m dead set on delivering the greatest product I can possible make.

That’s it for today,

Zhihao Huang