Missed Fortune Myths in the Years Gone By: Opportunities for Wealth That Slipped Away

On the eve of the 2023 Spring Festival, a gold bracelet incorporating elements of the “Nezha: Rebirth of the Demon Child” IP saw its price soar by 40% just six months after its release, doubling in value when calculated based on the current gold price. From Bitcoin to Moutai Zodiac liquor, from the demolition of villages in Shenzhen’s urban areas to Tesla stocks, every 18 months over the past decade has witnessed the emergence of a new opportunity for instant wealth. What opportunities for life-changing fortune have we missed?

The Years of Missed Fortune Myths

In 2010, when programmer Laszlo exchanged 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas, no one anticipated that this cryptocurrency would surpass $69,000 in 2021. The share price of Kweichow Moutai plunged to 118 yuan during the 2014 stock market crash, but has since seen an actual increase of over 30 times after adjusting for splits. Even more astonishing is the demolition of Dachong Village in Shenzhen, where 600 households received over 1 billion yuan in compensation, with the average household’s assets appreciating over a hundredfold.

These opportunities share a striking commonality: Bitcoin was initially regarded as a geek’s toy, Moutai stocks were abandoned during the plasticizer scandal, and Shenzhen’s urban villages were密集 with “handshake buildings” in the early 2000s. The starting point of every riches-to-rags story lies in the blind spots of public perception.

The Three Barriers to Wealth Opportunities

The first barrier is the information gap. When the gold price fell to $1,046 per ounce in 2016, only professional investors noticed that global central banks had started to increase their gold reserves. The second barrier is the lack of action. When subsidies for new energy vehicles were introduced, most people hesitated, while investors who dared to go heavily into Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited (CATL) have seen a 15-fold return.