How to Tell If Timing Is Right? Hexagram Tun: Line 62 Says Those Who Can Wait Get Good Results

How do you tell if the timing is right?

Honestly, that’s a trick question.

Most people who ask this aren’t actually trying to assess the timing. They’re already tempted, and they just want someone to egg them on, to say “Go for it, you’ve got this.”

For example, someone might ask you: “Do you think I should invest in this project?”

You ask them back: “What do you think?”

They say: “I think it’s pretty good, I’m just a little unsure.”

Translation: “I already want to invest. Hurry up and say something nice so I can commit.”

That’s not judging timing—that’s looking for an excuse to go through with it.

What does real timing assessment look like? Just look at the **Six in the Second Place of Difficulty at the Beginning (Tun)** and you’ll see.

What Does the Six in the Second Place of Difficulty at the Beginning Really Mean?

The Line Text (Yao Ci) for the second line of the Difficulty at the Beginning Hexagram is a bit long: **屯如邅如，乘马班如。匪寇，婚媾。女子贞不字，十年乃字。** (Hesitant and halting, riding a horse in circles. Not robbers, but suitors come to wed. The maiden preserves her correctness and does not consent; only after ten years does she consent.)

This line paints such a vivid picture.

A young woman is riding a horse, spinning in place. Why? Because someone is blocking her path ahead, and someone is chasing her from behind—she can’t go forward, and she can’t stop either.

Who’s chasing her? “匪寇，婚媾” (Not robbers, but suitors come to wed)—they’re not bandits, they’re here to propose marriage.

Sounds like a good thing, right? Someone proposing, how nice. But the young woman says no. “女子贞不字” (The maiden preserves her correctness and does not consent)—she holds to her bottom line and refuses to nod her head.

Why? Because she knows now is not the right time.

How long will she wait? “十年乃字” (Only after ten years does she consent). She waits ten years, a full cycle, until conditions are truly ripe, and only then does she agree.

You see, this is the state of the **Six in the Second Place of Difficulty at the Beginning**—hard, really hard. She wants to move forward but can’t; she wants to step back but can’t bear to. Someone is pursuing her, and it looks like a good thing, but she knows if she says yes now, she’ll regret it later.

So she chooses to wait.

The *Xiang Commentary (Images)* says: “The difficulty of the Six in the Second Place comes from riding above the firm. That she consents only after ten years is because she returns to the normal path.”

Why is the Six in the Second Place in difficulty? Because she sits above a Yang Line, pressed by the Nine at the Beginning, caught between advance and retreat. She consents only after ten years because she has gone through a full cycle and finally returned to the right path.

Put simply—good things are worth waiting for. Things you have to rush into usually aren’t that great.

Why Do So Many Smart People End Up Achieving Nothing?

I’ve noticed a pattern: people who are super smart and great at calculating odds often struggle to pull off big things.

Why? Because they’re too good at picking options.

They chase the optimal choice at every step, never want to miss an opportunity, and want to test every path. The result? After a lifetime of wandering, they realize they’re still going in circles.

I know a friend who graduated from a top university with a super sharp mind. Ten years after graduation, he’d switched jobs eight times across five different industries. Every time he quit, he had solid reasons: this industry is dying, that company has no future, this boss is unreliable.

All of it sounds reasonable.

But ten years later, some of his classmates who stuck with one industry had worked their way up to director positions. And him? He’s still chasing the next “better opportunity.”

It’s like digging a well. Some people pick a spot and keep digging—dig deep enough, and water comes out. Others dig a little, find no water, move to a new spot, and dig again. After a lifetime, they’ve left a bunch of holes but never finished a single well.

When the **Six in the Second Place of Difficulty at the Beginning** says “ten years then consent,” it doesn’t mean you literally have to wait ten years. It means you need the patience to *wait ten years*. You have to pick a direction, stick through the hard parts in between, and only then will you get the final result.

A lot of people don’t lack ability—they lack patience. The moment they hit a “hesitant and halting” rough patch, they decide their direction is wrong and switch fast. They hop from one thing to the next, always stopping right at the hardest stage, never actually breaking through.

Times change, and methods keep getting simpler. But one thing never changes—anything worth doing has a stretch of really tough days.

Get through it, and you’ll find a whole new world. Don’t get through it, and you’ll forever be spinning right outside the door.

“Not Robbers, But Suitors” — What Looks Like a Good Thing Might Be a Trap

These four characters from the Six in the Second Place of Difficulty at the Beginning really stick with me: **匪寇，婚媾。** (Not robbers, but suitors come to wed.)

What does it mean? The person chasing you looks like a bandit, but they’re actually here to propose.

The reverse is also true—someone who looks like they’re here to propose might turn out to be a bandit.

Put plainly, you can’t judge with your eyes—you have to judge with time.

I have a childhood friend. A few years back, someone pulled him into a project, saying it would double his money in half a year, guaranteed profit. He had some savings at the time, was super tempted, and wouldn’t stop talking about how great the project was.

I asked him: Do you know this person well? Do you know anything about this industry?

He said: Not really, but they talk a really good game, and they showed me tons of data and case studies.

I said: Then don’t rush to invest. Wait six months and see how it goes first.

He said: Six months? In six months they won’t want me in on it anymore.

I said: Then let them leave. A truly profitable project won’t fall apart just because you’re not in it.

What happened later? The project collapsed in less than a year—it was a scam. Everyone who put money in lost everything.

You see, that’s the lesson of “not robbers, but suitors”—what looks like a good thing might be a trap. What feels like a hassle might be the real opportunity.

How do you tell the difference?

Simple: see if it stands the test of time.

A real good opportunity will still be there if you wait three months, or six months. Wait a year, and it might even become clearer.

Anything that rushes you, saying you’ll miss out if you don’t act now, is most likely afraid you’ll think it through and not fall for it.

The Core of Decision-Making Is Being Able to Accept “Do Nothing” as an Option

I’ve noticed that when a lot of people face a choice, they default to only two options: pick A, or pick B.

There’s actually a third option: **Pick neither. Wait a little longer.**

This option is the easiest to overlook, but it’s often the smartest.

Why? Because when people are anxious, doing *anything* feels better than doing nothing. Even if what you’re doing is wrong, you can tell yourself “I took action, I tried.”

But the truth is, a lot of the time, doing nothing is better than doing the wrong thing.

The **Six in the Second Place of Difficulty at the Beginning** is all about doing nothing. She’s riding her horse in circles, she’s anxious, she’s impatient—but she refuses to say yes. Because she knows if she agrees now, there will be endless trouble down the line.

Let me give you an example.

You have two job offers on the table. One pays a higher salary, but the industry has no future and the company is unstable. The other has a lower starting salary, but it’s in a growing field and the company has real potential.

A lot of people would pick the first one, because the money is right there in front of them.

But if you think about it with the “ten years then consent” mindset, you’ll ask yourself: ten years from now, which choice will be better?

The answer is obvious.

Of course, that’s not to say money doesn’t matter. It’s that when you make a choice, you can’t only look at the step right in front of you. You have to look further ahead, ten years out.

Wen Laoshi often says, when you run into a problem, first ask yourself which line you’re on.

If you’re in the stage of the Six in the Second Place—stuck, caught, between a rock and a hard place—then the best thing to do isn’t to pick A or B. It’s to hold your bottom line and wait.

Wait for what?

Wait for the fog to clear, wait for the truth to come out, wait until you can see things clearly before you act.

How to Tell If You’re in the Six in the Second Place Stage

Just ask yourself three questions.

First question: Are you stuck between advance and retreat right now?

Moving forward feels like the conditions aren’t ripe. Stepping back feels like you’d be giving up too soon. Caught in the middle, miserable no matter what you do. That’s the classic state of the Six in the Second Place.

Second question: Is anyone pressuring you to make a decision?

Whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, if someone is rushing you, pushing you, creating a sense of urgency—you need to be careful. Something that’s actually good for you won’t fall apart just because you take time to think it through.

Third question: Can you accept “waiting a little longer”?

A lot of people rush to make decisions not because the opportunity won’t wait, but because they can’t stand the feeling of uncertainty. Having *any* result, even a bad one, feels better than being left hanging.

If you answered yes to all three questions, you’re most likely in the Six in the Second Place stage.

When you’re in the Six in the Second Place, do what the Six in the Second Place does. Preserve your correctness, don’t consent, wait for the right time.

Don’t rush to say yes, and don’t rush to say no.

Just wait and see first.

One Last Thing

When I was younger, I hated the word “wait.”

I thought waiting was a waste of time, that it was cowardly, that it meant you were incompetent. If there’s an opportunity, take it. If you have an idea, do it. What’s there to hesitate about?

Later, as I got older, I realized most mistakes in life don’t happen because you thought too little or acted too slow. They happen exactly because you thought too little and acted too fast.

Wait a second, think it through, then act. It’s slower, sure, but you make fewer mistakes.

And winning at life usually isn’t about who moves faster—it’s about who goes further.

The **Six in the Second Place of Difficulty at the Beginning** is for people who are stuck, who are weighing their options. It doesn’t tell you to pick A or B. It only tells you—

Don’t rush.

Good things are worth waiting for.

Only people who can afford to wait get good results.

Ten years then consent.

It’s not that you only say yes after ten years.

It’s that after ten years, you finally understand why you didn’t say yes back then.