When You Reach a Senior Position, It’s Not Ability That Counts — It’s Integrity & Steadfastness

Have you ever noticed this phenomenon?

People who are exceptionally sharp when fighting their way up from the bottom—smart, capable, driven, quick to react, always first to seize every opportunity, always competing to be number one. Logically, people like this should keep climbing higher and higher, right?

But reality rarely works that way. Many people hit a ceiling at a certain level and can’t advance further. You can’t say they lack ability—they outperform everyone else. You can’t say they don’t work hard—they put in more effort than anyone. Yet they struggle to take even one more step up, and sometimes even slide backward.

On the contrary, some people who don’t seem particularly shrewd, even a bit simple and honest, hold steady mid-level positions. They don’t move fast, but they move steadily, and before you know it, they’ve come a long way. When you look back in the end, many of those who used to outrun them are long gone, but these people are still standing—more firmly than ever.

Why is that?

Wen Laoshi says: At the bottom, you compete on ability. At the middle level, you compete on tactics. At the top, you compete on character. The higher you climb, the less cleverness counts, and the more integrity and generosity matter.

This truth is most plainly told in the top line of the *Lin* (Approach) Hexagram in the I Ching (Book of Changes).

「敦临，吉无咎」——Reaching the top depends on generosity, not shrewdness

The Line Text (Yao Ci) for the Top Line (Sixth Line) of the *Lin* Hexagram reads: 敦临，吉无咎 (Dun Lin, ji wu jiu).

"Dun" means generous, solid, steady, and free of tricks. "Lin" means facing, managing, and holding a position. Put together, "Dun Lin" means: when you’ve reached the highest position, you no longer need to compete with others on cleverness, tactics, or how hard you can fight. What you need to compete on is how solid you are, how steady you are, how well you can tolerate others, and how much you can bear and support.

Why does it say "吉无咎 (Good fortune, no blame)"? Because generous, honest people meet with good fortune wherever they go and never make major mistakes. If you are kind and honest, others will want to follow you; if you are straightforward, others will want to help you; if you don’t play mind games, others won’t be on guard against you. The more people you have around you, the wider your path becomes.

The *Xiang Commentary* (Images) says: The good fortune of Dun Lin comes from having one’s will directed inward.

This line is wonderfully insightful. "Having one’s will directed inward"—what does that mean? It means a generous, honest person doesn’t fix their mind on external things: they don’t compete with others, chase fame and profit, or play tricks to stir up trouble. Their aspirations are turned inward—toward their own moral character, their own foundations, their own inner cultivation.

They don’t fight with others; they strive to better themselves. Others chase superficial glory, while they hold fast to inner steadiness. Who do you think goes further?

Wen Laoshi often says that the six lines of the *Lin* Hexagram, moving from bottom to top, grow softer as they rise. The First Line (Nine at the Beginning) and Second Line (Nine in the Second Place) are Yang Lines (solid —), firm and full of drive; the three upper Yin Lines (broken - -) grow increasingly gentle and solid. Why? Because the higher you go, the less you can rely on brute force—you have to rely on the ability to bear and support. The less you can rely on shrewdness, the more you have to rely on generosity and honesty.

It’s like building a house: the deeper the foundation, the firmer it is; the higher the roof, the heavier and more solid it needs to be. If you put a thin, pointy top on, it will blow off in the wind. If you build a thick, solid roof, it will stay steady through any storm.

Why is "generosity" worth more than "shrewdness"?

Many people don’t understand—isn’t this world run by sharp, cunning people? If you’re kind and straightforward, won’t you get taken advantage of until you’re ruined?

This sounds reasonable, but it’s only half true. In the short term, shrewd people gain advantages. In the long run, generous, honest people are the real winners.

Why? Three reasons.

First: Shrewd people win for a moment; generous people win for a lifetime.

Shrewd people have quick minds and lots of tricks. They calculate everything perfectly and never take a loss. In collaborations, they work out every detail to make sure they never come out behind. In interactions, they react faster than anyone and never give an inch. At first, they really do gain advantages—they get a piece of every benefit.

But what happens over time? No one is stupid. After working with you once, twice, three times—every time you come out ahead and others lose—who will still want to work with you? The shrewder you are, the more people will guard against you. The better you are at calculating, the more people will avoid you. In the end, all your calculating cuts off your own path forward.

What about generous people? They always seem to be on the losing end, yielding to others in everything and never grabbing for benefits. Others think they’re silly, that they’re stupid. But over time, people realize: working with this person is reassuring—you don’t have to worry about being cheated. Being friends with this person feels steady—you don’t have to play mind games.

So more and more people want to work with them, more and more people want to help them. They don’t have to fight for opportunities—opportunities come to them naturally. They may seem to move slowly, but in reality, they move the steadiest and the farthest.

Second: It’s lonely at the top. Only generosity can draw people to you.

The higher your position, the more complex the people around you become. Some come to you for favors, some guard against you, some want to get benefits from you, and some want to pull you down. You’re surrounded by people, but you don’t know who is sincere and who is fake.

What do you rely on at a time like this? Shrewdness? No matter how shrewd you are, can you outthink everyone? If you’re constantly on guard against this person and calculating that person, won’t you be exhausted? Even if you don’t get tired, if you don’t have a single sincere person around you, can you hold onto your position steadily?

You can’t.

Generosity is different. If you’re kind and honest, if you don’t harm others, if you don’t play mind games, if you’re straightforward with everyone—over time, sincere people will stay, and fake people will leave on their own. You won’t have many people around you, but they’ll all be reliable. With a few people like that supporting you, you can hold your position steadily.

Wen Laoshi says: The higher your position, the less you should play mind games. Every time you trick someone, they’ll remember it for life. Every time you cut corners to save yourself, people’s hearts cool a little. Once people’s hearts have cooled, it’s hard to warm them up again.

Third: How far you go doesn’t depend on how fast you run—it depends on how solid your foundation is.

Many people run really fast, but their foundation is light—they topple over in a gust of wind. They fall apart at the first setback, capsize at the first wave.

Generous people are different. They seem slow, but they’re solid. They take one step at a time, planting each foot firmly. When they face difficulties, they can endure them. When they face temptations, they can hold their ground. They don’t chase overnight wealth, and they don’t believe in free lunches. They just move forward honestly and steadily.

After ten, twenty, thirty years—look again. Most of those who ran ahead are gone. But these people are still there, steady and unhurried.

This is the power of solidity. Only when you are solid can you bear the weight of things. Only when you are solid can you go the distance.

How to cultivate "generosity": It’s not about being silly—it’s about being solid

Generosity isn’t something you’re born with, and it doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat who doesn’t care about anything. Generosity is a choice, an ability, a practice.

How do you cultivate it? Three things.

First: Learn to yield benefits. Don’t grab every advantage for yourself.

When you’re at a low level, you have to fight for things, strive to improve, and grasp opportunities. But once you’ve reached a certain position, you have to learn to give, to yield, to share.

When you achieve success, don’t take all the credit—share more of it with the people below you. When there are benefits to be had, don’t pocket them all—share more with the people around you. When opportunities come up, don’t take them all for yourself—make way for younger people.

The more you yield, the more others will respect you. The more you share, the more others will follow you. People have feelings too. If you treat others well, they won’t treat you badly.

Second: Learn to tolerate others. Don’t find fault with every little flaw.

The higher you climb, the more you have to learn to get along with all kinds of people. You can’t only interact with people you like, and you can’t only accept ways of working that you approve of.

Some people are very capable but have bad tempers—can you work with that? Some people work slowly but produce high quality—can you wait for them? Some people speak harshly but are truly on your side—can you listen to them?

Generous people can tolerate other people’s flaws, and they can also tolerate others being better than them. They don’t hold everyone to their own standards. They know everyone has their own way of living, their own pace, their own strengths.

How many people you can tolerate determines how big a thing you can accomplish.

Third: Learn to keep your cleverness hidden. Don’t show off how smart you are at every turn.

Many people’s biggest flaw is that they love to show how clever they are. They have to put in their two cents on everything, they have to be the first to answer every question, they have to be the most eye-catching person in every room.

You really are clever, but if you make everyone else look stupid, do you think they feel good about it? If they don’t feel good, they naturally won’t like you, won’t help you, and may even try to trip you up.

That’s why truly generous people all know how to hide their cleverness. Some things don’t need to be said outright, some things don’t need to be pushed to the extreme, some cleverness doesn’t need to be shown. Leaving room for others is leaving a way out for yourself.

This doesn’t mean you have to pretend to be stupid. It just means you don’t have to act like you’re better than everyone else everywhere you go. No matter how strong you are, you can’t be stronger than a whole group of people. No matter how clever you are, you can’t outthink the combined effort of everyone around you.

One last thing

「敦临，吉无咎。志在内也。」

These few words lay bare the rule of survival for people in high positions. Stop always trying to be smarter than others, more capable than others, faster than others. Once you reach a certain level, what matters isn’t how hard you can fight—it’s how much you can tolerate. It’s not how shrewd you are—it’s how generous and honest you are.

Cleverness is a gift. Generosity is a choice. Your gift determines how fast you can go. Your choice determines how far you can go.

Remember: Only thick earth can bear the weight of all things. Only a solid, generous person can achieve great things. If you cultivate yourself to be generous enough, steady enough, you will stand firm no matter what storm comes.