四十年前，張彬煜博士已經是美國華盛頓特區著名的百萬富翁。他出身軍旅，有著強大的自制力與意志力，且能文能武，熟讀孫子兵法，巧妙地將這本祖傳經典運用到工作和商業投資中。在美國功利社會下，他保護自己的權利，總是以出人意料的方式獲勝。根據當年華府知名專欄作家吳崇蘭女士的說法：「四個例子體現張彬煜的能力：1. 1970 年代，張彬煜用 10,000 多美元買了 3 英畝的土地；五年後以 665,000 美元的價格賣掉。2. 張彬煜在密歇根大學安娜堡分校讀書時，一年獲得了四項獎學金。獎學金總額超過了一名副教授的年薪。3. 張彬煜畢業後的第一份工作是直接在一家美國公司擔任技術副總裁。4. 無須申請，無須考試，張彬煜當年直接拿到了綠卡；兩年後即宣誓成為美國公民，並免除五年居住要求。」中國知識分子通常有這樣的心態：“萬般皆下品，唯有讀書高”。他們認為談論金錢很俗氣，因此常常難以發揮自身融入以資本主義為主流的美國社會；因此西方漢學家普遍認為，這就是為什麼中國的知識分子從來沒有成為統治階級中掌握政治力量的原因。但張彬煜博士並非如此，透過他的回憶錄，走入時光的隧道，了解當年來自臺灣兩袖清風的軍旅人員，是如何掌握時機，在當年美國經濟蒸蒸日上中，以中國人的“大智若愚”賺得自己的人生，成為美國人心目中的“成功人士”。

★Foreword: Dr. Pin Yu Chang★

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 s