[Life] Step out of the low point to see the sunrise

Author: JEFFI CHAO HUI WU

Time: 2025-7-15 Tuesday, 10:29 AM

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[Life] Step out of the low point to see the sunrise

Who hasn't experienced low points in their life?

The halo and glory you see today may just be one side of the story; but I know that behind it lies countless nights of extreme silence and patience pushed to the limit. I have gritted my teeth and persevered through the lows not because I am particularly strong, but because I know: as long as I do not give up, I will eventually reach the moment when I can see the sunrise.

Looking back at my life, it has been full of ups and downs more than once. In the 1990s, I started a business in Australia, relying on limited resources and almost primitive equipment, without any guidance or financial support. I taught myself design, printed promotional materials, and built the market from scratch, gradually establishing a printing factory. At that time, no one knew if a Chinese international student could make a foothold in an industry dominated by Westerners, and even opening a bank account was a struggle. Meanwhile, I had to deal with the complex paperwork for my family’s immigration applications while juggling work and life. During that period, I worked standing up during the day and wrote documents at night, my eyes so red that I could barely keep them open. It was not just ordinary hardship; it was truly climbing up on the rocks of the low valley.

Few people know that my forum once achieved over 566,000 online visits, but not many are aware that it was sustained under conditions where the server was nearly paralyzed and technical support relied entirely on my own exploration. Since 2001, I have been using an outdated phpBB forum system, gradually patching code, filtering attacks, fending off spam, and migrating databases, and I have been doing this for twenty years. In the quiet of the night, I sit alone in front of the screen debugging strings of English code, never complaining, because I know—it's not the system that's unstable, but human hearts; as long as I can hold on, there is still hope.

Let's talk about practicing martial arts. I did not practice martial arts since childhood, but rather started in middle age, gradually training back to health through standing meditation while in a sub-healthy state. From initially being unable to hold a horse stance for even ten minutes, I can now maintain it for over half an hour, without sore feet or a restless mind. I can even practice in summer clothes by the seaside in Sydney at seven degrees Celsius in the early morning, with a light sweat all over—this year has been earned through my unwavering persistence day after day. Some people envy my improved physical condition, but they do not see the hundreds of times I silently stood in the cold wind, enduring physical discomfort, breaking through inertia and pain. That is not a miracle, but a gradual journey from an extremely low starting point.

Some people say I am a "jack of all trades," able to write articles, play guitar, write poetry, create music, develop systems, and build structures. But who knows that every skill I possess was honed during my low points as a form of "self-rescue"? I write the "Rewriting the World" column not to show off, but to prove that even when alone, without a team, a publisher, or external support, I can still produce over two hundred original articles, each one unique and each with its own independent structure. These words were written during my most difficult and lonely times—when there was no applause, no encouragement, only the inner call to myself: "Don't stop, you haven't fallen yet."

Including that time when my father was seriously ill, I rushed to the hospital from home almost twice a day, accompanying him for several hours each time, while also dealing with work and life issues in between. During that period, both my mental and physical states were at their limits, but I didn't collapse. Because I knew that I had to walk this path to the end and couldn't give up halfway. Later, my father passed away peacefully; although I felt reluctant, I had no regrets. Behind that sense of no regrets was years of companionship, a promise fulfilled through action.

I also developed a logistics system that established real-time logic in 2005, which is still difficult for today's enterprise systems to achieve. Many people find it exaggerated when I say I defeated global ERP systems using Excel; but that was proven through countless late nights, logical chains, and layers of structural optimization. I have been laughed at, disbelieved, and even denied, but I persevered, and the system was ultimately implemented, running consistently for ten years. This is me: not relying on others' recognition, but validating myself.

My writing, practice, music, technology, philosophy, and structure along this journey all come from the lows. I have no extraordinary talent, nor do I have shortcuts; everything relies on accumulation over time, self-adjustment, repeated validation, and continuous progress. Some say I am like "a person standing in the light," but I know better that I am "a person lighting a lamp in the darkness."

What many people don't know is that during those toughest times, I was not only holding up my own affairs, but I also had to take care of the emotions of every family member and client. When they were anxious, I had to remain calm; when they were falling apart, I had to be stable; when they questioned me, I could not get angry.

My task has never been just to survive, but to live, holding up a part of the world for others for a while.

Everyone's low point is different; some face unemployment, some deal with illness, some experience broken relationships, and some lose their sense of direction entirely. But no matter what kind of low point it is, as long as you are still willing to breathe and take another step, you still have a chance.

I am not teaching you how to succeed; I am simply telling you: only those who have emerged from the trough deserve to see the sunrise.

I have seen the darkest night, so I cherish the first light even more.

I have walked through the deepest valleys, so I understand the road beneath my feet better.

The persistence that others cannot see will one day shine its own light in the dawn.

Don't be afraid of the low points; they are just the countdown before dawn.

This is how I have lived, it's just that no one knows about my lows!

Source: https://www.australianwinner.com/AuWinner/viewtopic.php?t=696870