Wu Wang Hexagram Nine in Fourth Place: Sticking It Out With No Results, Should You Quit? "Ke Zhen, Wu Jiu" — If Your Direction Is Right, Hold On a Little Longer

Have you ever had one of those moments?

You’ve been working on something for ages,

poured so much effort into it,

but you just can’t see any results.

You start to wonder—

Am I just not cut out for this?

Did I pick the wrong direction?

Should I just give up?

When that happens, look to the Nine in the Fourth Place of the Innocence hexagram.

The Line Text is simple: "可贞，无咎。" (Ke Zhen, Wu Jiu / Perseverance is possible, no blame.)

"Ke" means possible.

"Zhen" means to hold firm, to persevere.

"Wu Jiu" means no fault, no problem.

Put it all together—

You can keep going, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

But there’s one condition—

The path you’re on has to be the right one.

The thing you’re doing has to be the right thing.

Perseverance only matters if your direction is correct.

If your direction is wrong, perseverance is just stubbornly banging your head against a wall.

How do you tell if your "direction is right"?

This is the most critical question.

A lot of people don’t lack the ability to persevere—

they just don’t know if they *should* keep going.

How do you judge if your direction is right?

Here are three criteria.

First criterion: Are you making progress?

Pay attention—this is "progress", not "results".

Results might not have shown up yet,

but progress is something you can feel.

Take learning English, for example.

You might not be able to hold a fluent conversation with a native speaker yet,

but you can clearly feel your vocabulary growing,

your listening getting better,

and you’re less nervous about speaking up.

That’s progress.

If you’re making progress, it means your method is right and your direction is correct.

Keep at it, and results will come sooner or later.

But if you’ve been studying for six months

and haven’t made any progress at all—

you’re still exactly where you started—

then maybe your method is flawed,

or you’re just not suited for this at all.

At that point, it’s time to think about switching directions.

Second criterion: Are you still growing as a person?

Progress is about improving specific skills;

growth is about a total transformation of who you are.

Take starting a business, for example.

You might not have made any money yet,

but you’ve become more mature,

more resilient,

you see problems more deeply,

and you handle things more calmly.

That’s growth.

Even if the venture doesn’t work out in the end,

you’ve become a stronger, more capable person.

Then the whole thing wasn’t a waste.

The path wasn’t walked for nothing.

But if you’re doing something

and instead of growing,

you’re becoming more anxious, more burnt out, less like yourself—

then this thing probably really isn’t for you.

Growth matters more than results.

Because results are temporary,

but growth lasts a lifetime.

Third criterion: Do you still have passion for it?

You’ve been doing this for so long—

do you still like it?

Do you still feel enthusiastic about it?

When you wake up in the morning, do you want to work on it?

If the answer is yes,

then odds are you’re on the right path.

Because only when you’re doing something you truly love

can you stick with it for this long and still feel that fire.

But if just thinking about doing this thing every day

gives you a headache, makes you resist, makes you want to run away—

then you probably really did pick the wrong thing.

Don’t fight yourself on it.

Some things, you can’t force yourself to like no matter how hard you try.

If you don’t like it, you just don’t like it.

Forcing it won’t help.

Why do so many people give up right before the dawn?

The direction is right,

they’ve been making steady progress—

so why do so many people still give up?

Because—they can’t see the end in sight.

You don’t know how much longer you have to hold on,

you don’t know when you’ll finally see results,

you don’t know if you can even make it to that day.

That uncertainty is the hardest thing to bear.

A lot of people don’t give up because they can’t keep going—

they give up because they don’t know *how much longer* they have to keep going.

If someone told you—

"Just hang in there three more months, and you’ll succeed."

then most people could make it through.

But the problem is, no one can give you that answer.

You just have to carry it yourself,

carry on without knowing when the end will come.

And so, a lot of people give up right before the dawn.

They were just a tiny step away,

but that one tiny step—they couldn’t cross it.

It’s such a shame.

How do you fix this?

Stop thinking "how much longer do I have to go",

just think "what do I need to do today".

Break that big goal into tiny pieces—

break it down to today, to right now, to this one single task.

If you finish what you need to do today,

you’ve won today.

Win today, win again tomorrow.

Keep winning day after day,

and before you know it, you’ve won the whole thing.

What should you watch out for while persevering?

"可贞，无咎" (Ke Zhen, Wu Jiu / Perseverance is possible, no blame) doesn’t mean you should just grit your teeth and suffer through everything.

There’s a skill to perseverance, too.

First: You can go slow, but you can’t stop.

If you’re tired, you can take a break.

If things get hard, you can slow down a little.

But don’t stop.

Taking a break is adjusting.

Stopping is giving up.

Once you’re recharged, keep going.

It’s okay to go slow—

as long as you keep moving,

you’ll get there eventually.

Second: Look back occasionally, but don’t walk backward.

On the road of perseverance,

you can look back every now and then—

look at how far you’ve come,

look at how much you’ve progressed.

Looking back is to give yourself a pep talk.

Look, I’ve already come this far—

it hasn’t been easy, keep going.

But don’t walk backward.

Don’t turn back just because things get hard.

Going back is easy;

trying to move forward again after that? That’s hard.

Third: Don’t stubbornly charge down a wrong path.

"可贞，无咎" (Ke Zhen, Wu Jiu / Perseverance is possible, no blame) has a condition—your direction has to be right.

If your direction is wrong,

the more you persevere, the further off course you’ll go.

So every once in a while,

you need to stop and think—

Is the path I’m on still the right one?

Is the method I’m using still working?

Does the thing I’m doing still have meaning?

Persevere when you should persevere,

adjust when you should adjust.

That’s smart perseverance.

Just gritting your teeth and suffering through it? That’s just foolish.

Final thoughts

The "可贞，无咎" (Ke Zhen, Wu Jiu / Perseverance is possible, no blame) of the Nine in the Fourth Place of Innocence

is for people who are feeling lost while hanging in there.

If you’re working on something

and you’ve been at it a long time without seeing results,

don’t rush to give up.

Ask yourself first—

Is my direction right?

Am I making progress?

Do I still like doing this?

If all the answers are yes,

then hang in there a little longer.

Persevere just a bit more.

Take one more step forward.

Maybe—

you’re just one step away

from the light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course,

if your direction is wrong,

you should also be decisive about giving up.

Giving up isn’t embarrassing.

Forcing yourself to keep going when you shouldn’t? That’s silly.

Perseverance and giving up—

neither is inherently right or wrong.

The key is—

whether the path you’re on is the right one.

May you walk the right path,

persevere to the end,

and find success at last.