Teacher Ye Tan:
I have been following Ye Tan Finance for a long time. I admire his talent and love his warmth.
Let me briefly talk about my situation. I was born in 1988 and come from a rural area in Qian County, Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, which is really a poor place. When I was a child, I focused solely on studying, and there was little competition in the countryside. I had good grades, and I felt that I must be a person capable of doing great things. The feeling of cultivating myself and bringing peace to the world was deeply rooted in my heart.
The first setback came from high school. I crossed the school district with good grades and was admitted to a provincial key class that was relatively good. It turned out that many children in the city were not good at reading and could pay a little more to take classes with me. I felt conflicted, but I studied hard and my grades were still good.
The turning point was the failed first love with my deskmate. This was a psychological pressure that I could not shake off for many years.
There was a huge gap between our family backgrounds. After her father noticed it, he quickly transferred her to a better class. At this time, I realized that she should study hard and chose to quit. This was a huge blow. For the first time, I faced the cruel pressure of society.
At that time, the family's financial situation took a turn for the worse, and the psychological pressure was even greater. Finally, after repeating the studies, I was admitted to a university in Xi'an. It happened that my first love also got admitted to the postgraduate program of this school. It was purely a coincidence.
During the summer vacation after finishing the college entrance examination, I first went to work in other places, and then came back and became the main force in the family's farm work. At that time, I was more than 1.6 meters tall and weighed less than 100 pounds. Children from poor families did not think there was anything wrong.
The gears of life start turning the night before you register for college. I suddenly fell ill without any warning and the cause could not be found. After spending a week in the ICU of the Municipal Central Hospital, the doctor was at a loss. After consultation with provincial experts, it was suspected that it might be medullary cavernous hemangioma (brainstem hemorrhage), and he was transferred to the ICU of the Fourth Military Medical University. That was 2008.
This disease is so rare, and the pain of various complications is still scary to think about now, and people will not feel comfortable in the ICU. After he was diagnosed, he was hospitalized to prepare for surgery, and his head was shaved. Unfortunately, all the rabbits used for preoperative experiments were wiped out, and the surgery was cancelled. When I was discharged from the hospital, I probably only had about 40 pounds left. When I returned to the village, everyone thought they were afraid that they would not be saved before returning. The truth was quite different. I had difficulty swallowing, was paralyzed in bed, suffered from nystagmus, dizziness and headache, and numbness in my limbs.
But the pain did not defeat me, and I did not feel that I was hopeless.
My family’s savings were all spent, and my brother was almost fired for taking care of me. Fortunately, I was young. I recovered slowly and could walk, eat and drink normally, and my one-year suspension from school was over. I plan to continue my studies. At that time, my family didn’t understand and I had no experience. Young people were very brave, and it was not easy for rural children to get into college, so they went to school alone. In fact, a year later, I seemed to be doing fine, but my body was very fragile.
One year of college life has not been easy, and many minor problems have occurred. These are warning signs from my body, but I have no idea about them. After studying for a year, the old disease relapsed, which was more serious than last time.
I dropped out of school completely and returned to my small mountain village to begin a long journey of physical recovery and a long road to medical treatment. All the doctors expressed their regret and resigned themselves to fate without any cure. I know this is the only way to go. But I believe that there is no perfect way.
I still feel that I am not done yet, because the ancients told me that anyone who achieves great things must first work hard…
I taught myself Tai Chi, walked in the morning for exercise, read and studied at home, and danced square dances with the women in the village to keep fit. I want to recover and learn knowledge. How can I stay in this small mountain village for the rest of my life?
I stayed in the countryside for more than six years. The best years of my life, all my expectations and expected future were gone. My mother suggested that I open a canteen in the town. They found out that there was a woman in a certain village who was honest, reliable, and strong. I refused and decided to go to Xi'an to work alone.
No diploma, no money, poor health. The first job I could find was selling insurance. I went to insurance training and I needed to jump around and I couldn't do it. The husband of a girl in the same group is the post-production supervisor of a certain photo studio. I studied photo post-production seriously at home, and it was just right.
In the later stage of the photo studio, money is calculated based on quantity, and I can't bear to work overtime. I saved some money and registered a company by myself. I found photo studios across the country online to take over their post-production work. I recruited people online who could do post-production work and distributed them to them. I did some of it myself and barely made ends meet.
Soon, I noticed that major photo studios in Xi'an did not have photo walls, so I ordered photo walls online and went to various photo studios to sell them. During this period, I lived in a village house in the city worth RMB 300. The house leaked, and it was cold in winter and hot in summer. During this period, I had a urinary stone attack and went to the hospital alone.
This job doesn't last long and I can't make any money. When I was the poorest, I only had a few dollars, and I couldn't ask my family for it. My family thinks that although I can't make money, I can support myself.
In fact, I almost starved to death. I couldn't catch the next meal and was worried about my livelihood all day long. At this time, I was not afraid that I would relapse and die outside.
I started tutoring primary school students again. After all, with good grades, this job also provided me with food.
During this period, I confessed my love to a girl who was also a high school classmate (not my first love, she was discussing marriage with a graduate student at the same school at this time), and she agreed, and I had to do something more. At that time, I stayed at home for too long and was out of touch with society. I also had a straight temper and didn't care about girls. Soon, she deleted and blocked me. I kept telling her that I must keep my word, and hoped that she would not judge me by the characters or plots in TV series or novels (but I never told her where my pain was).
This was the closest I got to starting a family, around 27 or 8. Met her at the wrong time, I always say.
I worked in a primary school remedial class for a year or two, barely making ends meet, and I was preparing to enter a junior high school class, and at the same time I was planning to open my own class. I applied for jobs everywhere and traveled around. Not having a diploma was a big disadvantage.
In the end, I still looked at abilities rather than diplomas. Although I suffered a lot, I finally started teaching junior high school. About a year or two later, the institution closed down and I officially entered the planning stage of opening my own class.
I chose many locations, borrowed 30,000 yuan from my brother, and started renting a house, buying teaching equipment, recruiting teachers, and recruiting students. It was very hard on my own. I have encountered urban management collecting equipment and gangsters charging protection fees, but they were unable to recruit teachers or students.
In order to save money, I bought a folding bed and put it in the kitchen. I spread it out to sleep at night and put it away during the day. The house was used as a teaching venue. Hard work paid off, and things gradually improved. Enrollment started in September, and I paid back 30,000 yuan at the end of the year, and there was still money left after paying the rent for the next year. For the first time in my life, I don’t have to worry about eating anymore.
The next two years were prosperous, my money became more and more abundant, and my career gradually improved. During this period, I also began to enter high school. I also reviewed high school content and began to teach high school mathematics. At the same time, he planned to make the institution bigger and stronger, and even dreamed of opening a school.
At this time, I was still thinking about finding a partner, although I found it difficult to succeed. Seeing that I was quite capable, I introduced many people, but they didn't know the inside story, so I rejected them one by one.
At this time, the epidemic suddenly hit and the business began to decline. The main reason is the introduction of the double reduction policy, and Xi'an began to strictly investigate. The original plan of devoting all my money to build a formal organization has been put on hold. With the income reduced due to the epidemic, I don’t know what to do. I have lost my career goal. I still have an income of about 10,000 yuan a month, but I feel that my life is hopeless and confused.
The epidemic ended at the age of 33. I suddenly realized that life was flying fast and I didn’t know where to go. The decline in my career made me lose the courage to go on a blind date. The anxiety returned.
The New Year of 2024 is coming soon, and I made up my mind to try it again in a big city. Friends who often travel for business thought Shanghai was good, so I decided to go to Shanghai. In what way can we go? I had an idea and took the college entrance examination.
Yes, at the age of 37, I prepared for more than a hundred days (I have been teaching mathematics) to take the general higher education entrance examination, and entered the college entrance examination examination room with my own students. Then I was admitted to Shanghai, but the school was not good. In the remote Fengxian District, I chose my favorite major of mathematics and applied mathematics.
I am writing this article in the study room of the school. What can a person, with illness and sequelae, give up his original comfort zone and start over? What can he do? What will be the result? have no idea.
I’m 38 years old, I don’t have a house, car, family, poor health, no diploma, no one supports my approach, and sometimes I don’t know what I’m pursuing. But it seems the mentality has changed.
I hope I can find my own way. I hope that everyone will not give up hope, there is no sure path.
a person who never gives up
February 7, 2026
A person who never gives up:
After reading your letter, I am very grateful.
An admirable person can stand out in the gloomy background of life. You have a spirit and an ability to improve, which can help you escape mediocrity and shine in a world without companies.
Conventionally speaking, your current life is probably like this: open a small shop in your hometown, marry a strong, hard-working woman with little knowledge, have two or three children, and be taken care of by your parents, and the couple earn some pocket money every month.
But you took a path that most people would never dream of.
I imagined a young man who was constantly struck by fate, starting from a small mountain village in Shaanxi, passing the college entrance examination and coming to Shanghai at the age of 38, sitting in the study room and writing letters to me.
A person who has been pushed to the ground so many times by fate can still stand up and move towards his goal. This requires a kind of strong vitality that is almost arrogant, and possesses the spirit of being a human being. I have seen all of these in you.
When you re-enter the college entrance examination room and sit side by side with a large number of 18-year-old students of your own generation, this scene reminds me of a sentence, true courage is not not to be afraid, but to keep moving forward in the face of it.
You have more gray hair than they do, and you also have the vicissitudes of living in a cruel world. It is precisely because of these vicissitudes that your life has an eternal romance above the color of blood.
Are you afraid? certainly.
I think you must be as helpless and scared as a child in the difficult situation of suffering from illness, recovering slightly but then relapsing again;
When you are hungry and don’t know where your next meal will be, but you dare not tell your family, you must be as miserable as a puppy that has lost its home;
When you face the girl you like and face various marriage proposals, but you have to reject them all because of your low self-esteem, you must be heartbroken;
When your career finally improves and you finally find a harbor in your life, but it has to be closed due to external factors, you once again become a child who can't find a home in the cold wind.
We are all afraid when we encounter such a blow, but what we are more afraid of is being trapped in place, both physically and mentally. This kind of fear is more effective than any chicken soup.
Now, you are finally sitting in the study room of the university in Shanghai. In middle age, you are starting to welcome a new life. This is the starting point, not the end.
Congratulations, you are amazing and I am so happy that you live so close to me.
Below, I make a few suggestions.
First, about life.
You have a foundation in mathematics and teaching experience, which are hard currency in today’s big cities. There is no shortage of teachers in first-tier cities like Shanghai, but teachers who make children learn happily. Knowledge is not boring. It is hidden in the mountains and rivers, flowers and plants, and the stars in the night sky that we see.
Don’t just focus on traditional education and training—AI is reshaping everything. Use AI tools, integrate them with your future teaching, create personalized mathematics learning plans, and become a teacher who can use AI to achieve results.
You don’t need to be a programmer, you just need to be the person who knows best how to use AI to teach mathematics.
With AI, you can build a viable company alone, or with one or two friends. This will give you the foundation to gain a foothold in Shanghai.
Secondly, about loneliness and love.
The previous experience you had that was closest to starting a family was not entirely your fault. But you are right. At that time, you were out of touch with society and had a special mentality. It has been too long, and you may not know how to love others, let alone how to love yourself.
Remember, you are a normal person, even a better person, living a normal life just like everyone else. Create a complete social scene for yourself through study, networking and work.
Only by speaking out your love and releasing your love can you get a love response.
If you meet the right person, don't wait for me to make a career. There is no conflict between life and career. In life and in fun, career will be achieved naturally.
If you haven't met it yet, don't be anxious. Learn to love yourself, love others sincerely, let yourself be with the world around you, listen to the birds, smell the fragrance of plum blossoms in Fengxian with a hint of sea breeze, and look at the exercises in front of you. Believe, today is a good day.
The greatest career in a person's life is to live as a complete person first.
However, a complete person is not defined by other people. There are no certain rules. You don’t have to live a complete life in the eyes of others. You don’t have to get married, have children, buy a house or a car. When you, like Hegel, walk along your own path and get the highest enjoyment, you are a complete person.
Third, about your body.
Although medullary cavernous hemangioma is difficult to treat, you have been living with it for sixteen years. It's not just luck, it's also because you understand the body better than the doctor does. Shanghai is rich in medical resources. Check regularly. Don’t exhaust your energy while studying and working.
In this world, treat your body gently, coexist harmoniously with it, do not look down upon the body, do not despise it, just treat it naturally as we coexist with all things.
You said, you don’t know what you are pursuing.
I think pursuit itself is the answer. You go from a small mountain village to a provincial key point, from the ICU to the college entrance examination examination room, from the folding bed to the university study room, which is meaningful in itself.
Many people died at the age of thirty and were buried only at the age of eighty. You are still alive, still pursuing daily progress, and still getting rid of the upper limit set by society.
The Spring Festival of the Year of the Horse is coming soon. Here, I would like to say to all those who have anxiety and dreams, it is great to have you in this world.
I am here to bless you.
Your sister Tan
Saturday, February 14, 2026
(Sister Tan’s email address: yetanbusiness@163.com. The letter authorizes Yetan Finance to use the content of the email. If you reply, the reply will only be made public and will be commented by readers. At the same time, you are authorized to use it for book compilation. Please be careful when writing.)
