A Fool's Success Story - A Memoir By Dr. Pin Yu Chang: 愚者一得（國際英文版）

By 張彬煜 and Pin Yu Chang

Preface: Dr. P.Y. Chang Always Ahead of Others 

Forty years ago, I already heard about the famous P. Y. Chang. At that time I was working and struggling to make a living, but Dr. Chang was already a well-known millionaire in the Washington, D. C. area. People called him millionaire Chang. I was very curious about him. My l

• Language: English
• Publisher: EHGBooks
• Release date: Jun 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9781647843632

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Translator’s Note:

For the Chinese names in the book I have used the Pinyin system as opposed to the old Wade-Giles system. However, for well known figures such as Chiang Kai-shek and his son Chiang Ching-kuo, I follow their original spellings instead of the Pinyin system. In order to avoid confusion and for those who read Chinese, I have also provided the original Chinese names in brackets. There is a glossary at the back of the book, which consists of a number of abbreviations and their full names.

For the Chinese classic The Art of War, I have consulted the English translations by Lionel Giles and James Trapp, the former is a bit archaic in terms of its language. I have essentially done my own translations based on my understanding of the original Chinese text.

Foreword: A memoir at the Request of the Readers

I am dumb. My whole life has been mediocre, not really worth talking about. I have never planned to write a memoir or an autobiography. However, more than ten years ago, senior columnist Ms. Wu Chong-lan(吳崇蘭 ) wrote in her Washington Profiles a feature about me. She noted that I had many experiences that could help others to attain happiness and good health. She said I looked dumb, but actually very wise only apparently nit-witted. She mentioned some concrete examples:

1. In the 1970’s I bought three acres of land with a little over 10,000 dollars.

Five years later, I sold it for 665,000 dollars.

2. When I was a student at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, one year I got four scholarships. The total value of the scholarships was more than the annual salary of an associate professor.

3. After graduation my first job was as a vice president for technology of a small U. S. company.

4. Without application or examination I obtained my green card. Two years later I took oath to become an American citizen with the five-year residence requirement waived.

After her article appeared in the Washington Chinese News, many people wouldn’t believe it. There were discussions in different groups. I was invited to give talks. Many Chinese newspapers invited me to contribute articles. My writings were not detailed enough. Many friends and the editors suggested that I write a memoir or an autobiography. They said that readers would enjoy reading it, and that would be beneficial for the people.

Many old friends also said, you consider yourself dumb and lazy. We think you are honest, and you know about yourself. But we don’t understand why beginning with elementary school all the way through second year senior high, you were always first in the class and served as class leader. At the graduate school of the University of Michigan, you were a straight A student and received the 1969 Outstanding Achievement Award.

In 1967 the American Esso Oil company (Exxon-Mobile now) had six oil tankers built in Japan and Germany respectively, each with a displacement of 250,000 tons. Before oil was loaded, the tankers’ structure went bad. At that time Taiwan’s new shipbuilding corp. was not planned yet. The island’s shipbuilding industry was pretty backward. Why Esso invited a young man like you who had never worked in highly developed shipbuilding countries such as Japan, the U. S. and European countries to take on the task of improving the design and manufacturing of the oil tankers? We know that you were quite successful, but we didn’t know how you got the job.

In fact, the year when a vice president of Esso called me to say that he wanted me to be responsible for the task, I never thought that they would ask me. I was happy, but didn’t know why they asked me. I was happy because I could do a very good job and was willing to do it. What I couldn’t understand was that in those days there were many ship design specialists, more than a thousand in New York alone. Throughout the world in countries like the U. S., the U. K., France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Norway and Korea there were at least more than ten thousand shipbuilding specialists. In the U. S. there were MIT, U.C., Berkeley, University of Michigan which had internationally known shipbuilding departments and professors. The U. K., France, Japan, Norway and Germany had shipbuilding departments and well-known professors too.

The design was originally done jointly by three most famous design firms in New York It was also approved by the American Bureau of Shipping and shipping bureaus of the U. K., Germany, and Japan. They unanimously considered the design good. The shipbuilding companies and shipbuilding circles in the world agreed that the two shipbuilders in Japan and Germany were first rate. They never expected any problem They believed that the six oil tankers would be successfully built.

They also believed that after the success of the six oil tankers, the shipbuilders would follow suit. At the time the largest oil tanker had only a 50,000-tonnage displacement. A 250,000-tonnage oil tanker would cut down the shipping cost by half per ton. They never expected such a serious structural problem. But the original designers and shipbuilders were the best in the world at the time. No one ever pointed out the errors in the designs and the ways to improve them.

Esso’s vice president Robert Taylor (same name as Hollywood’s handsome movie star) in charge of oil tankers in New York told me that they originally planned to get the design team, shipbuilders and professors of shipbuilding departments of internationally renowned universities to form a joint committee to solve the problem. But he added, Esso’s chairman of the board disagreed. The chairman said, "the design firms and the shipbuilders we engaged were the best in the world, and the design was in accordance with the methods and specifications of the Bureau of Shipping of the U. S., the U. K., Japan and Germany. They were not wrong. What was wrong was their use of old methods and specifications. It would not work if you get the previous people to use the old methods to improve the design. You need to find young people who have learned the new methods to help solve the problem. Mr.

Taylor said to me, "You’re a newly minted Ph. D. in shipbuilding and a winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award of the University of Michigan (1966). That’s why we want to engage you.

I did very well in this task. After improving the design, the oil tankers were smooth-sailing. As a result, I had offers from many companies. The new methods I utilized have been used internationally since then.

My friends after hearing my explanation asked me to put it down in writing.

In 2008 Vice Admiral Wang Xian-deng (王先登 ), founder of CNCT and China Shipbuilding Corp. passed away. My former superiors and schoolmates in the Nationalist Chinese navy asked me to write an article in memory of him.

Vice Admiral Wang’s contributions to CNCT, the Chinese navy and Taiwan’s shipbuilding industry were tremendous. I am one of his students and beneficiaries. Many of his deeds had something to do with me. My tribute and memorial piece was published in the Chinese-Foreign magazine (中外雜誌 ) in December 2008 (No. 6, Vol. 84). The response was enthusiastic. Both the National Historical Archive and the Naval Historical Museum wanted to keep my article for good. They also wanted to keep personal data about me. The contributions of an educator, besides the hundreds and thousands of students he taught, also include the performance of his students. Both the Archive and the Museum wanted me to write something for public exhibit. All my schoolmates said that I could no longer be a loafer any more.

Hence, I have started to write this memoir.

Preface: Dr. P.Y. Chang Always Ahead of Others

Forty years ago, I already heard about the famous P. Y. Chang. At that time I was working and struggling to make a living, but Dr. Chang was already a well-known millionaire in the Washington, D. C. area. People called him millionaire Chang. I was very curious about him. My late wife Rowena Fu and Mrs. Frances Chang were both members of the Tunghsin Choral Society. One time we were invited to his home. That’s how I got to know him. I found out that unlike the rich Chinese, who live in mansions and drive expensive cars, they were just like the ordinary Chinese having a simple home and leading a simple life. This whetted my curiosity even more, and my respect for him welled up in my heart.

Now his memoir A Fool’s Success Story is going to press, he’s kind enough to ask me to write a few words. Therefore, I had the privilege of reading his memoir before it’s printed. Now I realize why he has been always ahead of others, having had a successful career and accumulated wealth. The following is what I have learned after reading his memoir:

Chinese intellectuals have the mentality that all other pursuits are worthless, only the study of books ranks first and foremost. They consider money stinking. As a result, they loathe labor, and live their poor but principled life. They consider themselves high-minded, or they join the bureaucracy and become dependents of the power elites. If they are clean and not corrupt, when they lose their official jobs, they don’t have the means to be independent financially. According to Western sinologists, this is the reason why China’s intelligentsia has never been a counterbalancing force to the ruling class. P. Y. Chang is different from traditional Chinese intellectuals. He advocates that if you don’t seek fame and profit, you must be mediocre. He also says that to die of poverty is criminal. He’s certainly an avantgarde against traditional thinking. He is the one that introduces this new thinking and brings some fresh air. Hence, when he worked in U. S. agencies and companies, he insisted on his right to have a side line. His advice to the talented men and women: You must know how to manage money and make money. His contrarian way of thinking and behavior demands special attention.

As a matter of fact, the standard by which the Americans judge a person’s success or failure is usually his wealth. The way to create wealth in America is by way of one’s intelligence and wisdom, billionaires like Bill Gates of Microsoft, Steve Jobs of Apple and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook are all like that. That’s why the Americans attach great importance to intellectual property rights. The Chinese never had such a concept.

Although P. Y. Chang was originally a military man, he is adept in both pen and sword. He has mastered The Art of War by Sun Zi He adopts this ancestral classic skillfully and applies it to his job and business investments. In a foreign environment he protects his rights and always wins by way of surprise moves. We can see this everywhere in his memoir. Not everyone can do as well as he does. Obviously, he is very smart and has high IQ. He always says he’s dumb. That’s his self-effacement. In fact, a man of great wisdom often seems nitwitted. His talent has exhibited itself in speech contests and karaoke singing as well. He was a speech champion and won a standing ovation for his karaoke singing. He’s actually a man hiding his talent without showing it.

Speaking of his capability in both pen and sword, P. Y. Chang is a good poet. His traditional Chinese poems are well written His Collected Poems by P. Y. Chang is my favorite reading.

When he was 70, his relatives and friends threw a birthday party in his honor. I was invited to make a short speech on that occasion. In my remarks I cited a poem by a famous general and strategist Cao Cao (曹操 )of the Eastern Han dynasty. The poem written by Cao Cao in his twilight years reads in part: Like an old horse transporting a heavy load of timber, my destination is hundreds of miles away. I wished P. Y. Chang just like that horse with a long journey ahead. When it was

P. Y’s turn to respond, he quoted the American expression, I’ll go the extra mile for the rest of my life. Chinese and American diction, a perfect union, his witticism showed itself brilliantly and he got a round of applause. I have nothing but admiration for him. To this day, I can’t forget that remarkable evening. More than a decade has since passed, P. Y. Chang is still in excellent health, old but vigorous. He has gone not just the extra mile, but thousands of miles. No wonder he is always ahead of others. We look up to him and follow him forever.

Norman Fu, former U. S. Bureau Chief of The China Times

His Secrets

I have known P.Y. Chang and his wife Frances Chang for more than 30 years. Frances is a beautiful and graceful lady from -Hubei province. I often see her working as a volunteer in the Chinese community. She is enthusiastic about serving her fellow Chinese. Her husband is simple and reticent, looking like an honest Joe. They have been married for over 40 years, still very much in love with each other. The sunlit spring scenery is enchanting at Mount Wu,The beautiful scenery with the lake and mountain view is splendid. A chance meeting turned us into intimate friends. Helping each other through thick and thin for tens of autumns. We were destined to be lovers in previous lives. We enjoy our years together without worry. Constantly striving to become stronger with good health. What else can we ask when reaching old age we are still love?  This is the poem penned by P. Y. Chang on the occasion of their silver wedding anniversary. Home and sweet home, and a beautiful marriage, are so conspicuous and touching, we truly envy them.

P.Y. Chang is a graduate of Chinese Naval College of Technology (CNCT) of the ROC. He served in the Nationalist Chinese navy for many years. He was a commander when he retired. After that,he came to the U. S. for graduate study, he worked in American agencies and companies until his retirement, he had quite a few unexpected and amazing experiences, which may serve as a model for us in work and how to conduct ourselves in life. This may lead us to a happy and healthy life.

When P. Y. Chang first arrived in America for study, because of the fact he is Cantonese, who dominated the Chinese communities in those days, and he had many connections with them. and received help from them quickly. He wanted to get a scholarship to study, but his friends and relatives said, as a new comer, he would not be able to get a scholarship. Surprisingly, he not only received a full scholarship from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, but also got four more scholarships including the Outstanding Achievement Award of the engineering school of the University. The total monetary value of his scholarships was even more than the annual salary of an associate professor.

The average Chinese students from overseas in order to earn spending money and pay for tuition usually worked in Chinese restaurants. They accumulated money through hard work. P.

Y. Chang, however, worked in a well-known big company as an engineer. His salary was several times more than that of the average Chinese student. After he obtained his Ph. D., his first job was as a vice president for technology of a small

U. S. company. Six years after his graduation, his extra income exceeded that of his Ph. D. salary. Others when applying for permanent residence, hire lawyers, it costs money and time, and it takes long. He and his wife Frances applied for the green card, they didn’t spend even a penny, and they received the card in three days. Two years later without application and examination they took the oath and became American citizens with the five-year residence requirement waived.

In the 1970’s P. Y. Chang paid 15,000 dollars for a three-acre land in the vicinity of the Dulles International Airport. He said to his wife, three years later, this piece of land can earn us 100,000 dollars. Frances said that he was dreaming. If he could make 10,000 dollars, she’d be smiling. Surprisingly, five years later he made six times more than his projected 100,000-dollar target.

Frances often says that P. Y. Chang is dumb. She says no one is dumber than her husband in the world. P. Y. also admits that he’s dumb. His relatives and friends do not think favorably of him either. People respect him because he’s honest and reliable, but not smart and capable. Some of his good friends, when they encounter problems, they do not condescend to discuss it with him, because they don’t believe that he could help. For instance, a good friend and schoolmate from his Taiwan days, became an illegal alien in the U. S. working in a Chinese restaurant. He worked 13 to 14 hours a day, his wages were only about half of others. His wife asked him to call P. Y. Chang for help. He refused because he did not believe that P.Y. could help. As a result, he suffered for more than ten years before he got out of the predicament. Had he let P. Y. know about it, Chang was sure that he could help him secure his green card within a month or two.

An internationally known professor Hsu at the University of Maryland, when P. Y. Chang first got to know about him, was a high-spirited and vigorous academician. His worth was over 10 million dollars. But in less than a year, due to some minor incident, he became bankrupt and was ruined beyond redemption. In his attempt to protect himself, he committeed a huge blunder. If Prof. Hsu had consulted P. Y. Chang in time, he would have offered Hsu some good advice. His property loss would have been minimal, and his reputation would have remained intact. All these stories sound like fairy tales. P. Y. Chang said, All people feel that I’m dumb, they don’t believe that I can help them solve their problems. He admits that he’s dumb. But he believes that even the wisest people are not free from error, and even the dumbest can get it right at least once.

When I learned about the anecdotes of P. Y. Chang, I thought about calling him to get more details, but he never responded. After thinking it over for a while, I got the answer myself. While he is not articulate, he is not muddle-headed. He works hard, honest and solid, careful and meticulous. He also has guts and never gives up, nor is he afraid of failure. He’s brave enough to blaze his own trail. He has a clear mind, good at analyzing situations and never reckless. He’s dedicated and popular among the common people, and he’s not a fool with a single gain. He is in fact a great wise man who seems nit-witted. All in all, he has been blessed. Therefore, he’s invincible with all the fair wind at his back.

This article appeared as a Washington Profile by Ms. Wu Chong-lan (吳崇蘭 ) on October26, 2006.

Dr. P. Y. Chang’s Biographical Data

Education:

Graduate of Chinese Naval College of Technology (CNCT), 1952, Taiwan Graduate of Naval Steel Materials Senior Class, Taiwan (1958) Master’s degree in engineering, University of California, Berkeley, U.S. A. (1965) Ph. D. in shipbuilding engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S. A. (1967)

Work Experiences:

Manager, system engineering department and deputy director of ship hulls structure department, Designers and Planners, Inc. U. S. A. (1982-95) Deputy director, Department of Fluid Dynamics and Solid State Dynamics, Hydranautics, Inc. (1975-82) Vice President, COM/CODE Corporation, (1969-72) Instructor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S.A. (1964-65)

Research Assistant, University of California, Berkeley, CA (1961-64) Naval Design Center and Section Chief of Ship Hulls Section, and Commanding Officer of the Reserve Officers (1957-61), Taiwan

Liaison Officer at ROC’s Navy Headquarters in charge of engineering projects with U. S. aid. (1954-57) Deputy Director, Ship Hull Factory, Third Naval Ship Yard, Deputy Engineer, Machine Building Factory, Commander Officer the Apprentices, editor-in-chief of Chunli Newsletter

Special Qualifications:

Senior professional engineer’s license in the State of Virginia, broker’s license in the State of Maryland, U. S. A.

Academic Activities:

U. S. delegate to the International Ship and Offshore Structure Congress (ISSC) and a member of the ISSC Congress (1973-1995)

Contents

內容

Translator’s Note:

Foreword: A memoir at the Request of the Readers

Preface: Dr. P.Y. Chang Always Ahead of Others

His Secrets

Dr. P. Y. Chang’s Biographical Data

Contents

1.      Honesty Makes a Multi-Billionaire

2.      It’s Criminal to Die of Poverty

3. How to Build An Independent Economic Foundation

4. Advice to a Genius and a Beauty

5.      A Discourse on The Art of War

6.      Sharing My Experience with Longevity

7.      Know Thyself and Know the Enemy, Win a Hundred Battles without Defeat

8.      How to Promote Yourself

9.      How to Turn a Paper Tiger into a Real Lively Tiger

10.      You Do Not Have Because You Do Not Ask

11.      The Chinese Marine Corps and Me

12.      Rectifying a Wrong Case, Saving Schoolmate’s life

13.      Correcting a False Accusation, the Truth of Saving a Schoomate’s Life

14. God Wants You to be Rich

15. Optimism Is the Mother of Success

16. In Memoriam

17. On Fortune-telling, Remembrance of My Parents

18. Winning a Contract for China Shipbuilding Corp.

19. As Commanding Officer of the Reserve Officers

20. The Way to Success

21. The Knack to Make Money

22. A Beneficiary of The Art of War Discusses the Strategies of Sun Zi

23. Han Yu Did Not Reject Buddhism and Taoism

24. Family Burden, It’s No Burden At All

25. How to Prevent Discrimination and Unfairness in Employment

26. Knowing Discontentment Brings Eternal Happiness

27. No Weal Without Woe

28. On The Art of War Again

29. Thank God You Are Not Beautiful

30. Save a Professor of National Taiwan University

31. Drive a Duck onto a Perch

32. Memories of My Days in America As a Naval Officer

33. Protect Your Assets Before Abortive Litigation

34. Everybody Needs to Have a Sideline, Which Makes Money Easily

35. A Pioneer in Taiwan’s Shipbuilding

36. We All Need to Participate in American Political Activities

Honesty Makes a Multi-Billionaire

  Portraits of the ancestors I have seen during ancestral worship ceremonies on Chinese New Year’s Day. (Lunar calendar, the first day of the first moon)

  Every year during Chinese New Year’s Day people in the country side hold New Year greetings in family temples. I always accompanied my grandfather to attend. The family temple was big. On that day, the temple was decorated with balloons and lanterns. There were also dragon and lion dances, very boisterous. The portraits of the ancestors of different generations hung in the main hall of the family temple. The portrait in the middle was the principal character

of this article—ancestor Yi Yuan (奕源祖 )and a multi-billionaire. The portraits on both sides of ancestor Yi Yuan were his eight sons. They were called eight rich princes in the county. I belong to the second son ancestor Shi Zuo’s (世佐祖 ) offspring.

  Grandpa lived in a big library, which had over 20 rooms. There was also a large garden. The library was actually a private tutor school for the education of the offspring. When time came to my father’s generation, modern elementary and middle schools were already in place The private tutor school was out of fashion. Grandpa used the library to educate the children of his close brothers. My two older brothers went to school during the day and ate dinner at home. They spent the night in the library. In the morning they would go home for breakfast. I did the same. There was no high school in my home town. My brothers went to Guangzhou to attend high school. During the holidays they would come back and live in the library.

  There were two good things about living in the library. First, we could listen to grandpa telling stories in the evening. Apart from those living in the library, cousins and uncles in the home town would also come and listen to the grandpa telling stories. There were quite a few people. Second, around 9 p.m. each evening, snacks would be served. The following was the story about my multi-billionaire ancestor Yi Yuan grandpa often told.

                The times of ancestor Yi Yuan

  In the middle of the Qing dynasty Guangzhou was the only trading port with foreign countries. (Shanghai and Tianjin became trading ports with foreign countries much later. All foreign products came into Guangzhou first, then sold throughout China. Chinese stores, known as Chinese and foreign product stores, had imported products such as spice including pepper, large and small fennel, cinnamon