So, you know I’m always poking around, trying to figure out how these ancient manuals actually work when you’re elbow-deep in real-life crap. I got Hexagram 34, Great Power, in a reading a couple of months back, and honestly, the sheer mistake I made in applying it initially is why I’m writing this today. It wasn’t some deep philosophical insight that cracked it for me; it was the cost of a really stupid oversight that hammered the lesson home.
The context was messy. I had spent six months planning this big switch, moving from a steady, well-paid corporate gig to launching my own platform. I felt ready. More than ready. I had the war chest built up, I had the network connections, and frankly, I was sick of taking orders. I was flying high on confidence, bordering on cocky, and I knew it. So, I grabbed the coins—you know me, always gotta check the vibe before committing the irreversible—and I threw the reading. I was looking for confirmation: “Am I strong enough to pull this off?”
The Initial Blunder: Misinterpreting Great Power
When Hexagram 34, Dà Zhuàng, showed up, I literally grinned. Power! Strength! Success through sheer force of will! The Judgement talks about “Advantage through perseverance” and the image is “Thunder above Heaven.” I read that and immediately saw the green light. I interpreted it as: “You have the power, now go kick ass and ignore anyone who tells you otherwise.”
That was my first massive mistake. I took the power and I used it like a sledgehammer.
I started the launch. I hired the two people I had planned to bring on, but instead of mentoring them slowly and building the structure, I immediately overloaded them. I drafted the contracts with aggressive timelines that were probably impossible. I pushed myself, working eighteen-hour days. If a potential partner showed any hesitation, I just steamrolled them, saying, “Look, we’re doing this my way, fast, or we’re not doing it at all.” I was running on pure adrenaline and the ego boost of Hexagram 34, believing I could just muscle through every obstacle.
For the first three weeks, it sort of worked. The sheer force of the push created momentum. But then, everything started to unravel. One of my hires quit, citing burnout and poor communication. A major technical vendor, whom I had rushed into a bad agreement, pulled back, leaving a massive hole in our infrastructure. I was strong, alright, but my strength was being used to shatter the foundation, not build on it.
Hitting the Wall and Rereading the Manual
I had lost five figures in direct costs and about a month of valuable time when I finally collapsed into my office chair and knew I had done something fundamentally wrong. That’s when I picked up my I Ching commentary again, not just reading the Judgement, but really focusing on the Image and the lines themselves.
The Image: Thunder above Heaven. It’s strength, yes, but it’s often interpreted as the power of the bull. And what happens when a bull is too powerful and doesn’t know where to focus? It crashes through the fence, injures itself, or exhausts its strength prematurely.
I realized my interpretation had been juvenile. Hexagram 34 isn’t just about having power; it’s about the correct management of that power. It’s about not letting the power go to your head and not forcing unnecessary conflict. I had been reckless.
My internal practice shifted immediately. I stopped demanding and started listening. I pulled back the aggressive timelines. I spent three full days just apologizing to the people I had burned and, critically, I re-engineered my approach to hiring and communication.
The Practical Application: Learning to Hold Back
The true practical lesson of Hexagram 34, the one that saved my launch, is this:
- Don’t Flex, Just Be: True strength doesn’t need to shout. I stopped trying to prove I was the boss and started focusing that internal power on stable decision-making. I realized the power I had needed to be internalized, used for resilience, not external intimidation.
- The Fence is There for a Reason: I had treated every constraint as an enemy to be smashed. I learned that boundaries—whether they are budget caps, time limits, or team capacity—are actually what define the shape of your success. Strength is knowing how to operate powerfully within those boundaries, not outside them. I re-established a budget limit and suddenly the decision-making became sharper.
- Strength Needs Patience: I had wanted instant results. Hexagram 34, if you look at the lines, warns about the dangers of uncontrolled movement (like the moving line that talks about the ram butting a fence). I forced myself to slow down, scheduling mandatory short breaks and moving my focus from ‘output quantity’ to ‘output quality.’
It took another two months to truly recover from the early disaster, but when we finally relaunched, it was solid. It was stable. I used the power of Hexagram 34 not as a starting gun for a sprint, but as the deep, steady engine that keeps the machinery running even when things get tough. The best advice for this reading, based on watching my own mess unfold, is simple: You have the strength, but if you don’t anchor it with humility and patience, you’ll just end up breaking the things you’re trying to build.
Now, every time I get a reading that suggests powerful action, I check my ego at the door and remember the cost of assuming brute force wins the day. It never does.
