Why Can’t You See Results After Hard Work? Hexagram 18 Xiaoxu First Line: Hidden Dragon, Do Not Act (潜龙勿用)

Have you ever gone through a phase like this?

You push hard every single day—you work your day job, study at night, and run a side hustle on weekends, so busy you barely have a minute to catch your breath. But when you look back, it feels like nothing has changed. Your savings haven’t grown much, your skills haven’t improved much, and life just feels the same old same old.

You start doubting yourself: Did I pick the wrong direction? Am I just not cut out for this? How come after all this hard work, there’s not even a tiny splash to show for it?

Take it easy.

There’s a specific hexagram in the I Ching (Book of Changes) that speaks to this exact phase: Hexagram 9, The Taming Power of the Small (Xiaoxu / 小畜卦).

Xiaoxu means small accumulation, small savings. The clouds are thick, but the rain hasn’t fallen yet; you’re putting in the work, but the results haven’t arrived. This isn’t because you’re not good enough—it’s just not the right time yet.

The first line of The Taming Power of the Small describes this exact state of "just starting to accumulate, with no results visible yet." It says: "复自道，何其咎，吉。" (Returning to one’s own path. What blame could there be? Good fortune.)

复自道 — Get Back to Your Own Rhythm

What does "复自道" mean? "复" (fu) means to come back, to return. "自道" (zi dao) means your own path, your own rhythm.

Put together, it means: Get back on your own track, walk your own path, and stop running around blindly following other people.

Why does the First Line (Nine at the Beginning / 初九) lead with this? Because in the early stages of building something, the most common mistake people make is letting others set their pace.

Say you just start learning to write. You post three pieces and no one reads them. Then you glance over and see someone else has hundreds of thousands of followers on short videos. You get tempted and want to try short videos too. You work on it for half a month with no progress, then you hear cross-border e-commerce is profitable, so you want to jump into that instead.

You bounce from one thing to another, spend a ton of money, waste a ton of time, and end up with nothing to show for it.

That’s what it looks like when you don’t "return to your own path." You chase whatever’s trending, you covet other people’s profits, but you never stop to check what fits you, what you already have, and where your own path lies.

Wen Laoshi often says: No matter how great someone else’s path is, it’s theirs—it might not work for you. You see people making money from short videos, but do you know they have a whole team behind them, funding, and years of accumulated experience? All you see is the polished front; you don’t see the grind behind the scenes.

Why is the Nine at the Beginning considered "auspicious (吉)"? Because it doesn’t compare itself to others—it just walks its own path. You make your quick cash, I’ll build my small skills; you take the fast lane, I’ll take the slow lane. Fast or slow doesn’t matter. What matters is: This path is mine, and I know what I’m doing.

何其咎 — It’s Totally Normal to Have No Results at First

What does "何其咎" mean? "咎" (jiu) means fault, misfortune. "何其咎" translates to: What could possibly be wrong here? There’s no problem at all.

You’re just starting out, just building up, just beginning something new. Not seeing results yet isn’t a mistake—it’s normal.

When you plant a seed in the soil, nothing happens on day one, day two, or day three. You can’t say, "This seed is broken, why isn’t it sprouting?" It’s growing roots underground—you just can’t see it.

Accumulation works the same way. You learn a little every day, do a little every day, improve a tiny bit every day. It might look like nothing’s changing, but you’re actually "growing roots." Once those roots go deep enough, you’ll break through the soil naturally. When that happens, you’ll grow so fast you’ll barely believe it yourself.

I know a woman who started learning English three years ago. Every day she memorized vocabulary, practiced listening, and read English articles. After half a year, she felt like she hadn’t improved at all—she still needed subtitles for American TV shows, and she still got nervous talking to foreigners. She almost gave up.

But she stuck with it. A year later, she suddenly realized she could understand 70-80% of American TV shows without subtitles, and she could hold a smooth half-hour conversation with a foreigner.

She told me, "It felt like one day out of nowhere, everything just clicked. Before that I felt like I was treading water, then suddenly I leveled up all at once."

That’s the rule of accumulation: Slow at first, fast later; the early stage is "storing up," the later stage is "bursting forth." When you’re moving slow in the beginning, you’re not wasting your time—you’re building up strength for the breakthrough later on.

So "何其咎" — what’s the rush? You’re just starting out, of course there are no results yet. Just keep going. You’re not doing anything wrong.

Why So Many People Fall at the "Nine at the Beginning" Stage

The Nine at the Beginning is the first line of The Taming Power of the Small, and it’s where most people give up.

Why? Because it’s so draining.

You work hard and see no hope; you put in the effort and get no reward. Every day you ask yourself: Is this even worth it? How much longer do I have to keep this up?

Most people ask themselves that question enough times that they quit. Then they switch to something new, start over, and quit again at the exact same stage. Their whole lives spin in a cycle of "start — quit — start again — quit again."

Wen Laoshi once said: Most people don’t lose at the finish line—they lose right near the starting line. Because right near the starting line is the darkest part, where you can’t see any hope and it’s easiest to doubt yourself. Those who make it through win; those who don’t, turn back.

So how do you make it through?

"Returning to one’s own path" is the answer. Get back on your own road. Stop glancing left and right, stop comparing yourself to others. Compare yourself to you—if today’s you is just a tiny bit better than yesterday’s you, that’s enough.

If you’re learning English and you learned one more new word today than yesterday, that time wasn’t wasted. If you’re running a side hustle and you made ten more yuan today than yesterday, that work wasn’t for nothing. If you’re writing and you wrote a hundred more words today than yesterday, that writing wasn’t pointless.

Don’t underestimate those tiny gains. A little bit each day adds up to a huge leap over a year.

Three Reminders from the First Line of The Taming Power of the Small

After all that, what exactly is this first line trying to tell us?

First, don’t let other people set your pace. You have your own path to walk. Other people’s rhythms have nothing to do with you. Their quick cash is their business; your slow accumulation is yours. There’s no right or wrong—what matters is what fits you. Sticking to your own path is more important than anything.

Second, accept the fact that you won’t see results right away. Accumulation takes time. You can’t get fit in one meal. Don’t quit after three days just because nothing’s working. It’s not that the method is bad—it’s that you’re too impatient. Give it patience, give it time, and the results will come.

Third, compare yourself to you, not to others. Compare yourself to others, and you’ll only get more anxious. Compare yourself to your past self, and you’ll gain more confidence. A tiny bit of progress every day adds up to huge improvement over a year. The key is: don’t stop.

The Taming Power of the Small is about "storing up," about accumulation. And all accumulation starts with the Nine at the Beginning.

This phase might be slow, it might be hard, it might make you question everything. But it’s a path you have to walk. No one’s accumulation starts halfway—everyone starts from a place where "you can’t see anything yet."

All the seemingly useless effort you put in today is building up strength for tomorrow’s breakthrough.

Just like the Nine at the Beginning says: "复自道，何其咎，吉。" (Returning to one’s own path. What blame could there be? Good fortune.)

Walk your own path. Don’t rush. You’re on the right track.