Is It Time to Start a Business? Hexagram Tun's Nine at the Beginning Says: Survive First

Is it the right time to start a business? That’s the question I’ve been asked most often lately.

Some people want to quit their jobs to start a business, some want to turn their side hustle into a full-time gig, and others who’ve only been in business for three months are already thinking about scaling up. Everyone’s anxious—afraid of missing the trend, afraid of being left behind by others.

I usually ask them back: How long can you survive right now?

What does that mean? It means: How many months can you last with the money you have on hand? Can your business run on its own without expanding? Can your team function without you?

A lot of people can’t answer that.

And that’s exactly how it should be. When you can’t answer those questions, it’s time to look at the **First Line of the Zhun Hexagram (屯卦初九)**.

What is the First Line of the Zhun Hexagram (屯卦初九)

The first line of the Zhun Hexagram has a line text of six characters plus a half-phrase: **磐桓，利居贞，利建侯。** (Pán huán, lì jū zhēn, lì jiàn hóu.)

It sounds all literary and formal, so let me translate it into plain language.

磐桓 (Pán huán) means lingering, hovering, or marking time. Imagine a horse that wants to move forward but dares not, pacing back and forth in place—that’s the state it describes.

利居贞 (Lì jū zhēn) means it is auspicious to stay on the right path and hold your ground. Don’t act recklessly—acting impulsively will only bring bad results.

利建侯 (Lì jiàn hóu) means this is the best time to build a team, set up your crew, and find partners, not to rush into "battles" or expansion.

Why is the first line in this state?

Because the Zhun Hexagram (Difficulty at the Beginning) is the hexagram of all things being newly born, and the first line is the very beginning of that new birth—full of yang strength, but positioned at the very bottom, with Kan (The Abysmal Water, danger) ahead. One wrong move and you’ll fall into a pit.

Having strength is useless if the timing is wrong.

When a seed has just sprouted, you can’t just drag it out into the sun to bake. It’ll wilt in two days. You have to let it take root in the soil first, and once the roots are deep, it can grow upward slowly.

Starting a business works the same way.

The Biggest Pitfall in Early Entrepreneurship: Wanting to Go Big Before You’ve Even Survived

I’ve seen way too many entrepreneurs fail for the exact same reason—they go too hard right out the gate.

A friend of mine used to be an executive at a big company, saved up some money, and quit to start his own business. As soon as the project launched, he rented a 500-square-meter office with floor-to-ceiling windows. He hired over 20 people—directors, managers, supervisors—all with clear hierarchical ranks. He said, "If you’re starting a business, you’ve got to look like a real business."

I visited his office once. It was really impressive, but also really empty. Half the people were scrolling on their phones, the other half were in meetings.

I asked him, "Have you finished building the product?"

He said, "We’re still polishing it."

I asked again, "Do you have any clients yet?"

He said, "We’re in talks with a few."

I said, "Then why did you rent such a big office?"

He said, "You’ve got to think big, get the team fully set up—once the business takes off, it’ll be too late."

What happened in the end? Before the product even launched, the money ran out. The company lasted eight months, then shut down.

This is a classic case of wanting to run a marathon before you’ve even learned to walk.

When the **First Line of the Zhun Hexagram (屯卦初九)** says 磐桓 (pán huán), it’s not telling you to lie flat and do nothing—it’s telling you not to rush into putting on a big show. First, get the most core things sorted out: Is your product any good? Will your customers buy it? Can your business run on its own?

Until these three things are sorted out, all expansion is just wasted effort.

Wen Laoshi often says that the goal of the first year of entrepreneurship isn’t how much money you make—it’s surviving.

Survive the first year, and you’ve already beaten 90% of people out there.

Lingering Isn’t Cowardice—it’s Basic Practice for the Starting Phase

A lot of people think that marking time is just wasting time.

But that’s not true.

Look at an eagle catching a rabbit: before it swoops down, it has to circle in the sky several times. What’s it doing? It’s observing the terrain, finding the best angle, waiting for the perfect moment.

It’s not circling because it can’t fly—it’s because it knows it only gets one chance to swoop. If it misses, it goes hungry that day.

Starting a business is the same. The 磐桓 (pán huán) of the **First Line of the Zhun Hexagram (屯卦初九)** is exactly that phase where the eagle is circling in the sky.

You think they’re wasting time, but they’re actually mapping out the entire terrain of the market.

Let me give you another example, a positive one this time.

There’s a woman who runs an e-commerce business. At first, it was just her, working from home. She did everything herself: product selection, photography, customer service, packaging. She was doing the work of five people all on her own for half a year, until she was steadily making 20,000 to 30,000 yuan a month.

That’s when she started hiring people. First a customer service rep, then an operations manager, and later she rented a small office. By the third year, her team had over a dozen people, and monthly sales were in the millions.

She told me that the first six months were the hardest, but also the most critical. It was during those six months that she figured out the entire workflow—where the money comes from, where the pitfalls are, how much to spend on what. All the later hires happened because she genuinely couldn’t keep up with the work, not to look good.

See? That’s what 利居贞 (lì jū zhēn) means. First stay on the right path, get things done right, then talk about growing bigger.

The Same Goes for New Jobs and New Side Hustles

This isn’t just for starting a business—it’s the same for starting a new job or a side hustle.

When you just switch to a new company, the first three months are exactly the phase of the first line of the Zhun Hexagram. What’s the biggest taboo here? A new official burning three fires right away.

You don’t even know how deep the waters run at the company, and you immediately want to push reforms, to prove how great you are. What happens? You offend a bunch of people, don’t get anything done, and end up leaving in disgrace.

The wisdom of the **First Line of the Zhun Hexagram (屯卦初九)** is: no matter how capable you are, when you first arrive in a new place, you have to lay low first. Get to know all the people and the situation clearly, then it’s not too late to take action.

The *Xiang Commentary* (象传) puts it well: "以贵下贱，大得民也。" (Yǐ guì xià jiàn, dà dé mín yě.)

What does that mean? No matter how high your status or how great your ability, when you enter a new environment, you have to humble yourself. The lower you set your posture, the more you can win people over.

Now let’s talk about side hustles.

A lot of people haven’t made any money from their side hustle yet, but they’ve already bought a bunch of equipment and signed up for a ton of courses. People doing short videos buy a 20,000-yuan camera first; people doing self-media sign up for a 10,000-yuan training camp first; people doing live streams decorate their streaming room first.

They buy a bunch of stuff, spend a lot of money, and barely work on the actual thing for more than a few days.

The Zhun Hexagram tells you that the most important thing in the starting phase isn’t equipment—it’s whether your direction is right and whether you can make the model work.

Just film with your phone first. If it takes off, you can buy a camera later. Just write by yourself first. If you gain followers, you can sign up for courses later.

Validate first, then invest. Survive first, then develop.

This order can’t be messed up.

How to Tell If You’re in the First Line Phase

It’s simple—ask yourself three questions.

First question: Do you have a stable source of income?

Whether it’s a business or a side hustle, having stable income means your venture is viable. If you don’t, that means you’re still in the first line phase, still lingering.

Second question: Do you know where the core problem is?

The biggest taboo in entrepreneurship is being clueless. You have to know whether your biggest problem right now is a bad product, not enough clients, or a team that can’t keep up. If you don’t even know where the problem is, what are you rushing for?

Third question: How long can the money you have on hand last?

This is the most practical one. If it’s less than six months, don’t even think about expansion. Honestly control your costs and manage your cash flow well.

If you can’t answer all three questions, then you’re definitely in the first line phase.

When you’re in the first line phase, do what the first line calls for: linger, stay on the right path, and build your team.

Don’t rush.

One Last Thing

I know that in this day and age, everyone’s anxious.

You see other people succeeding in business, you see other people making tens of thousands a month from their side hustle, you see people who used to be worse off than you making it big—and you panic.

But you have to know that all you see is the part where they’re flying high. What you don’t see is how long they spent circling on the ground.

The **First Line of the Zhun Hexagram (屯卦初九)** is for people who are just starting out on something. It doesn’t yell "you can do it!" at you, and it doesn’t tell you you’ll definitely succeed. It just tells you—don’t rush, stand firm first, build your team first, survive first.

Every beginning is hard.

The hard part isn’t the thing itself—it’s that you always want to skip the beginning and jump straight to the middle.

You can’t skip it. Every step you’re supposed to take, you have to take—no shortcuts.

So next time you ask "is it time to start a business?", first check your wallet, then look at your team.

If neither is ready, then wait a little longer.

Lingering isn’t cowardice.

It’s waiting for the wind to come.