I’ve seen many smart people, few are wise.

On my way to my office I took a taxi this morning.

The taxi driver and I had a small chit-chat. He said his eyesight was failing, since he played too much his cell phone. He said he played Chinese chess for hours per day. I said, “You must be a very smart person. I heard that playing chess is of great benefit to one’s intelligence.”

He laughed a bit and said, “I used to be a chess player. I was trained in Shameen ( An island in the middle of the Pearl River where many sports training centres are located in) . I was top of the class.”

I was a bit embarrassed since I knew there must be some things happened on his way to be professional. I hesitated and asked, “I think professional chess player don’t earn much…”

He smiled and kept driving, looking forward at the roads ahead. “I was so good that even my coach was not my competitor… I always went to the tennis court and played tennis with the girls while my mates were practicing chess in the chess centre.”

He stopped talking for a while and turned a corner, continuing said, “There was a time, the last time I played chess with the coach was, when I played tennis next to the centre, I accidentally hit a tennis ball and it broke into the centre, messing up a chess game between my coach and my classmate–who is now the No. 1 played in Canton.”

“The coach was furious and asked me if I dare challenging him and play a game with him. If I won, I would be graduated; if I lose, I would be expelled.”

The driver grinned  and said, “I said, of course, coach——then I kicked his ass! Haha.”

I smiled, “You beat your coach! Wow!”

He laughed a bit and his smile faded, “I thought I was invincible… Having ‘graduated’ from the chess school, I didn’t have much chance to competitions. Then I played chess in Culture Park, where I was the youngest challenger of Chinese chess and had beaten up a lot of chess players.”

“I was so arrogant… so arrogant that I took part in a competition of chess in Hubei Province. Until that I realized that people like me, I mean players like me, are so common in China. Any one in the competition could beat me up. I might be smart, but never smart enough.”

He paused, “After that, I thought to myself, well, still I could use my intelligence to do some business…”

Suddenly he stopped. I looked ahead and saw my office was right in front. I knew this conversation had come to the end.

I didn’t know what “do some business” means to him. Was he saying that driving was a kind of doing business? Or what he really meant, was that he failed doing business and had to drive a taxi to make a living?

I was a bit uneasy to hear stories like this. Stories full of bittersweet regrets and remorse. Unfinished dreams and broken paths are so common that anyone can say something beginning with “Had I have the chance of …” and continue by “I would definitely…”

I’ve seen so many smart people. Only few are wise.

If I had anything to say for my 2019, that is, to lay a good foundation for everything. Be a forward-looking person while always keeping myself down-to-earth.

Always keep in mind. Practice makes perfect.