Waiting (Xu) Hexagram First Line: Rushing at Start? Learn to Root Deep In Place

Young people who have just joined the workforce are most prone to one mistake: being too eager to prove themselves.

Less than two weeks into a new company, they think they’ve got everything figured out. They start offering suggestions, pushing for reforms, and finding fault with everything left and right. If their ideas aren’t adopted by the leadership, they feel their bosses lack vision and wallow in self-pity.

The same goes for first-time entrepreneurs. The project has just been approved, the product isn’t even in sight yet, but they’re already thinking about expanding the team, securing funding, and going public in two years. They post more frequently on social media than anyone else, with the mantra “you’ve got to have a dream” always on their lips.

What happens in the end? Check back half a year later, and you might not even find them still in the game.

The first line of the *Waiting* Hexagram in the *I Ching (Book of Changes)* speaks specifically to this stage. It reads: **"需于郊，利用恒，无咎。" (Waiting in the outskirts: it furthers to be constant; no blame.)**

Waiting in the Outskirts: You Haven’t Reached the City Gate Yet

What does “waiting in the outskirts” mean?

Imagine you’re heading into the city to handle some business, and you’ve only reached the suburbs so far. There’s still a distance to go before you reach the city proper, the road ahead isn’t entirely clear, and you haven’t got a clue what’s going on inside the city. What do you do at this point?

The *Nine at the Beginning* of the *Waiting* Hexagram tells you: wait a while in the outskirts, don’t rush headlong into the city.

Why? Because you’re new here and don’t know anything yet. You don’t understand the city’s rules, you have no connections, and you have no idea what pitfalls lie inside. Charging in recklessly will only leave you either slamming into a wall or falling into a trap.

I had a former colleague who switched jobs to become the operations director at a new company. In his first week on the job, he overhauled processes with a heavy hand, rejected all the team’s existing plans, and did things his own way.

His subordinates tried to advise him, saying the original plan had been finalized after six months of back-and-forth with the business department, and there were nuances he didn’t yet understand. He wouldn’t listen, saying their approach was too outdated and to do as he said.

What was the result? In the second month after the changes, all performance metrics collapsed. The business department was up in arms, and the boss called him in for a talk. Only then did he realize that the so-called “outdated plan” was shaped by many historical factors and interest balances—you couldn’t just change it on a whim.

How did it end? He sheepishly reverted everything, losing both face and credibility. He didn’t make it past the probation period and left.

**When you enter a new environment, the first step isn’t to show off your abilities—it’s to get a clear picture of the situation.** That’s the lesson of the *Nine at the Beginning* of the *Waiting* Hexagram.

It Furthers to Be Constant: Perseverance Matters More Than Drive

The phrase “it furthers to be constant” is the core of this first line.

It means the most important quality at this stage isn’t intelligence, nor drive—it’s perseverance.

Think about it: when you first arrive somewhere, you have to start everything from scratch. Learning new things, meeting new people, adapting to a new environment—all of it is small, trivial work with little sense of achievement. Smart people often can’t stand this, thinking it’s too simple, too boring, and that their talents are being wasted.

But in the end, it’s the people who aren’t necessarily the sharpest, but who are willing to stay put and build up experience bit by bit, who go the farthest.

I know a young woman who started out in customer service at an internet company. Her colleagues who joined at the same time were clamoring to transfer to operations or product roles after just two months, saying customer service had no future. She was the only one who quietly stayed in customer service for two full years.

Over those two years, she wrote down every single question users raised and sorted them into categories. She knew exactly which types of issues were most common, what users cared about most, and which环节 was most prone to problems.

Later, when the company wanted to upgrade its user experience, no one understood users better than she did. She was promoted directly to user experience manager, while those colleagues who’d transferred early were still hopping from department to department.

**At the starting stage, going fast is actually going slow, and going slow is actually going fast.** If you rush forward without laying a solid foundation, you’ll hit a ceiling once you reach a certain height and have to come back down to make up for missed lessons. It’s better to take it slow at first, sink your roots deep, and then you’ll naturally grow faster later on.

The *Nine at the Beginning* of the *Waiting* Hexagram tells you there are no shortcuts at this stage—it all boils down to one word: **constancy**.

The Prerequisite for No Blame Is Not Acting Recklessly

The outcome of the first line is “no blame”—meaning no major faults.

This isn’t a high praise, but it’s practical. When you’re just starting out, don’t dream of making great contributions or stealing the spotlight. Just avoiding mistakes already means you’re halfway to winning.

Many people just don’t get this. As soon as they start, they want to make a big splash to prove how great they are. But with insufficient experience and unclear understanding of the situation, they make mistakes the moment they act. Then they try to fix their mistakes, only to make things worse, until they’ve completely blocked their own path forward.

Wen Laoshi often says: “A new official burns three fires on taking office—but more often than not, they burn themselves.”

It’s a bit of a sharp saying, but the logic holds. When you don’t have full information, haven’t built trust with the team, and don’t know the capabilities of the people under you, giving random orders is bound to lead to mistakes.

So what should you do when you’re just starting out? The *Nine at the Beginning* of the *Waiting* Hexagram offers three pieces of advice.

**First, observe more, speak less.**

Don’t rush to take a stance in the first three months. Look around, ask questions, and figure out what each department does, what role each person plays, what the company culture is like, and what you can and cannot say.

Only when you’ve got all that straight will the words you speak carry weight.

**Second, start with small tasks.**

Don’t turn your nose up at small jobs. No matter how trivial a task is, doing it well builds your reputation. If you’re asked to organize a document, do it clearly and neatly; if you’re asked to coordinate with a client, handle it thoroughly. When everyone sees you’re reliable, they’ll trust you with bigger responsibilities.

Abilities grow from small tasks, and trust is built through small acts too.

**Third, keep a steady pace, don’t stop.**

The biggest taboo at the starting stage is having a three-minute passion. You’re full of drive when you first start, working overtime every day. But two weeks later, once the novelty wears off, you start slacking off.

Truly capable people don’t sprint ahead all at once—they maintain a steady, consistent speed. A little progress every day adds up to a huge leap over a year.

When Can You Move Forward?

But you can’t stay in the outskirts forever, right? When is it time to move ahead?

The signal from the *Waiting* Hexagram is clear: move only when you have a thorough understanding of the environment and are confident in what you’re doing.

To be more specific, you can ask yourself three questions.

First, **have I figured out the rules here?** That includes both explicit rules and unspoken ones.

Second, **do I have a basic level of trust?** Do my leaders and colleagues think I’m a decent, reliable person who gets things done?

Third, **do I have something to offer?** Whether it’s ability, resources, or information, I need to have at least one thing I’m good at.

If the answer to all three questions is “yes,” you’re ready to move forward. Acting then won’t be reckless—it’ll be prepared action.

Final Thoughts

I often tell recent graduates: don’t rush.

You’re in your twenties, just starting your career, and you still have 30 or 40 years until retirement. Starting half a year earlier or later really doesn’t make that big of a difference. What matters is how solid a foundation you lay when you’re starting out.

With a solid foundation, things will go smoother and smoother as you go on. With a shaky foundation, the higher you climb, the harder you’ll fall.

**The *Nine at the Beginning* of the *Waiting* Hexagram is a reminder for anyone just setting out: don’t rush, stay a while in the outskirts.** Sink your roots deep, steady your mind, get a clear picture of the situation—and then move forward.

“It furthers to be constant; no blame.” This line is worth sticking on the edge of every beginner’s computer screen.