Tai Hexagram First Line: Why Some Teams Thrive While Others Fall Apart

Everyone starting a business shares the same confusion —

You’ve got a decent-sized team, but only a handful of people actually get things done; everyone seems busy all the time, but output is low; each person looks impressive on their own, but when they come together, the whole thing falls flat.

Is it a lack of ability? Doesn’t seem like it. Is the pay too low? Salaries aren’t bad for the industry. So where exactly is the problem?

The issue might be — you’ve picked the wrong people. Not that they lack ability, but they’re just not the right fit.

This is exactly what the first line of the Tai (Peace) hexagram in the I Ching (Book of Changes) talks about. It says: "拔茅茹，以其汇，征吉。" (Pull up茅草 and its roots come along, because they are of the same kind; advancing brings good fortune.)

Pulling Up Thatch Grass — Finding the Right People Matters More Than Anything

What does "pulling up thatch grass" mean? Mao (茅) is thatch grass. Ru (茹) describes how the roots are all tangled together.

Have you ever pulled thatch grass? Yank one stalk, and a whole clump comes up with it, because their roots are connected — they’re the same kind, they belong together. That’s why it’s called "pulling up thatch grass": you pull one, and the connected roots bring a whole patch with it.

What does "because they are of the same kind" mean? Hui (汇) means things of the same type gathering together. Because they’re alike, they cluster; because they cluster, they rise and fall together.

Applied to teams, this makes perfect sense. What’s the key to whether a team succeeds? It’s the people — whether the people you bring on are "your kind."

What counts as "your kind"? It doesn’t mean identical personalities or the same hobbies. It means you share the same direction, the same values, and the same core approach to work. People like that coming together are just like thatch grass roots: each stalk is independent, but below the surface they’re connected — pull one, and the whole patch follows.

I’ve seen so many teams with lots of people, all with impressive backgrounds, that just can’t get anything done. Why? Because their hearts aren’t in it together. Some want quick cash, others want to build for the long term; some focus on the product, others on marketing; some think you should play it safe, others think you should go all in. On the surface everyone works at the same company, but really everyone’s got their own agenda, pulling in different directions.

Teams like that get messier the more people you add. It’s like pulling weeds: yank one, and only one comes up — the roots aren’t connected, you can’t pull a second one with it. Getting them all to move forward together? Near impossible.

Wen Laoshi often says: Finding a co-founder is harder than finding a partner. With a romantic partner, you just need to get along; with a co-founder, you need to be able to tough it out together, make money together, and face failure together. If your core values don’t align, you’ll split up sooner or later.

That’s why "advancing brings good fortune" — the prerequisite for good fortune when you move forward is that the people you’ve brought on are all "thatch grass roots," all your kind, all on the same page. With the right people, moving forward is lucky; with the wrong people, moving forward is just walking into a trap.

How to Tell If Someone Is "Your Kind"

It sounds simple, but it’s hard to do. How do you tell if someone’s really on your wavelength?

Some say check their values — but that feels too vague. Others say just look at ability: if they’re skilled, that’s enough. But when push comes to shove, you’ll find that a highly skilled person who’s a bad fit does more damage than a less skilled person who’s a good fit.

Here are three simple criteria you can use to judge.

First, look at their attitude toward money. Don’t think talking about money is tacky — money is the best test of a person. Do they prioritize short-term gains or long-term rewards? Are they willing to share the pie, or do they want it all for themselves? When things get tough, do they stick around to help, or first think about bailing? People who see eye to eye on money will probably align on most other things too; people who don’t agree on money won’t work out no matter how well they get along otherwise.

Second, look at their first reaction when things go wrong. When everything’s smooth, everyone’s nice — you’re great, I’m great, we’re all great. But what happens when there’s a problem? When something goes wrong, do they first think about how to fix it, or how to pass the blame? When pressure hits, do they step up first, or shrink back first? That split-second reaction in a crisis reveals a person’s true character. No matter how well they put on a show day to day, the moment trouble hits, their real self comes out.

Third, look at what they do when they have free time. When everyone’s busy, we’re all the same — we’re all working. What about when things slow down? Some people use downtime to learn, to think through problems; others check out completely and scroll through their phones. That’s not to say resting is wrong — it’s that if their rhythm is totally different from yours, you’ll drift apart sooner or later. You want to charge ahead, they want to take it slow. It’s not that one’s right and the other’s wrong — it’s that your rhythms don’t match. People with mismatched rhythms won’t go far together.

I have a friend who started a business. His first co-founder was a college classmate, and they were super close. But they split up after a little over a year. Why? My friend is the go-getter type who can work 16-hour days without feeling tired; his classmate is the work-life balance type who clocks out on time and never works weekends.

It’s not that either of them is a bad person — they just have different rhythms and different expectations. When you think it’s time to push hard, they think it’s time to rest; when you think something has to get done today, they think it can wait till tomorrow. Over time, the friction builds. It’s not that they don’t care about each other — they’re just no longer on the same frequency.

That’s the importance of "being of the same kind": you have to be the same type of people, on the same wavelength, pulling in the same direction. Otherwise, you pull one stalk and only one comes up — you can’t move the whole patch, and you won’t go far.

Advancing Brings Good Fortune — Only When Like-Minded People Gather Can You Succeed

The phrase "advancing brings good fortune" looks simple, but it carries a lot of weight.

Zheng (征) means moving forward, taking action, expanding your horizons. Ji (吉) means good fortune, smooth sailing, success.

Why does "pulling up thatch grass" lead to "good fortune in advancing"? Because when like-minded people come together, there are three key benefits.

First, low communication costs. When you’re the same kind of people, you don’t have to spell everything out — a hint is enough. You say half a sentence, they know the rest; one look, and they get what you mean. All the time you save on communication can go into actually getting work done. What about working with someone who’s not on your wavelength? You have to say the same thing three times and they still don’t get it; you go back and forth on one task for rounds and rounds. You’ll be exhausted before you even get to the actual work — what efficiency can you expect?

Second, strong trust. With people who are your kind, you know where their bottom line is, what their principles are — you don’t have to watch your back around them. When there’s a conflict of interest, you trust they won’t cheat you; when things get hard, you trust they won’t run out on you. That kind of trust is the foundation of a team’s strength. A team without trust falls apart the second trouble hits; a team with trust can handle bigger and bigger challenges.

Third, strong risk resistance. On the road of starting a business, anything can happen — the market shifts, competitors show up, cash flow dries up, key team members leave. When like-minded people are together, they don’t split up when things go wrong — everyone brainstorms solutions and toughs it out together. What about people who aren’t aligned? When disaster strikes, everyone flies their separate ways; the tree falls, and the monkeys scatter.

I used to work at a startup with five founders, all college alumni with extremely aligned values. At the company’s lowest point, they couldn’t make payroll for three straight months — and no one left. Everyone chipped in money to keep the company afloat, and things slowly got better. Looking back now, their greatest strength wasn’t how skilled they were — it was that they’d picked the right people from the start: all "thatch grass," with roots connected.

This is what the Nine at the Beginning of the Tai hexagram teaches us: Before you start doing things, find the right people; and when you look for people, look for your kind. Get the right people, and you’re halfway to success; pick the wrong people, and no amount of hard work will matter.

Final Thoughts

The line "拔茅茹，以其汇，征吉" (Pull up thatch grass and its roots come along, because they are of the same kind; advancing brings good fortune) from the Nine at the Beginning of the Tai hexagram, translated to today’s terms, means this: Whether a team succeeds depends on its people; whether people can succeed together depends on whether they’re the same kind. When like-minded people gather, they’re like thatch grass with connected roots — pull one, and the whole patch follows, and moving forward is sure to go smoothly.

What is the Tai hexagram? It’s ease, it’s smooth sailing, it’s harmony between above and below. But tai (peace and ease) doesn’t come out of nowhere — you don’t get it just by wanting it. What’s the starting point of tai? It’s the first line, the "pulling up thatch grass" — it starts with finding the right people.

With the right people, all the ease and success that comes after is possible; with the wrong people, no matter how much you struggle, you’ll never reach that state of ease.

So if you’re building a team, looking for co-founders, or hiring new people, don’t rush to charge ahead. Pause and think — are the people you’re bringing on "your kind"? Do you share the same direction? Are your values aligned? Do your rhythms match?

Don’t just look at how impressive a resume is, or how strong someone’s skills are. Skills can be trained, experience can be built — but a person’s core logic, values, and work rhythm? Those things are almost impossible to change.

Find the right people first, then get to work. That’s the first lesson the Tai hexagram gives us, and it’s the most important one.