Help greatly appreciated

[he who tries to remember]

Hello dear friends,

I cannot make sense of this reading:

My question was related to what would happen if I put a business ad/offer in my friend's online service/paper

Cast hexagram: 60

four changing lines: the two upper and the two lower, the two in the middle are black/not moving.

Hexagram 60/line four:
"he is most content in frugality and simplicity; the highest success"

But the transformed hexagram is 23!

Is this not highly contradictory or am I missing something? If I follow the advice I will get an unfortunate result...

Any help would be most welcomed; as I considered the venture a good idea; but now I am not so sure.

Much love and gratitude.

 

[leandroscardoso]

I have different opinions about the future hexagram http://chinayinyang.wordpress.com : see my upward movement, that should be applied in the transformation, and the post about the yin turn to yang, that I call internal movement , it is not so easy to see the future.
This hexagram is generally translated as saving, then you should have precaution spending money (don't necessarily means you shouldn't put the ads). With so much changing lines it's difficult to have a prognostication.
I'm not a fan of divination, I prefer the knowledge of someone who knows the yin yang theory (the solid and broken lines) please post your statuses of your business, how it is going, growing, your friend's service description, so we can evaluate.

 

[he who tries to remember]

Thank you so much for taking the time to help a novice.

Well my business is in the beginning phase; our service provides lifestyle advice; helping anyone attain happiness and peak performance; athletes, businessmen, or anyone else for that matter.

Since we are in need of exposure my friend said I could use his promotional platform; this platform provides a huge database of people/customers, whereby appearing in his online "paper" we may gain significant exposure and potentially many clients. We would, for instance, offer a one hour consultation for a certain discounted price to the readers of his highly successful online platform. (and it would not cost any money to place our "offer" on the online platform)

I hope this provides enough information, and thank you again.

 

[mryou1]

23 looks bad, but when you consider that it comes at the end of a whopping 4 changes, it makes sense as the last step of a process. Take each line and change them one at a time, here's the pattern that develops:

60. Articulating/Limitation > 29. The Gorge > 8. Grouping > 2. Yin > 23. Stripping/Splitting Apart

I think this makes a lot of sense in the context of putting an ad up. Here's my attempt at an explanation:

Clearly expressing the connections and boundaries in putting this ad up > the big risk, actually putting it up > assessing whether the grouping of your business with the paper is fitting, and also maybe looking for more papers to put your ad in > the waiting game, letting things take their course without intervention > finally taking the ad down, or the ad going down on its own, after enough time has passed and there is no more use in associating with the paper.

The Judgment of 60 is important too: Bitter articulation not permitting Winter. i.e. "If putting the ad in the paper isn't right... don't do it to begin with." But of course, it could be a good move.

The trigrams are marsh inside, water outside. A joyous situation which risks overflowing and danger. This hides earth inside, mountain outside. The danger has the potential to cease entirely, and the joy has the potential to spread to encompass many people. As in, the success of the ad has the potential to benefit your company and others who you reach out to.

 

[he who tries to remember]

Thank you my friend; a highly sagacious analysis; way out of my league; I'm only beginning to understand the principles underlying this ancient art.

If I understand you correctly:

If my friend will allow our offer to appear on his online platform, and if the offer is featured correctly and effectively, it may be a fortuitous opportunity?

The service he provides is free, it is only a matter of gaining the right to feature on his online platform (site) for an allotted space of time; usually 24 hours.

During that time, if enough people sign-up for the "special" offer which we have provided for this particular occasion; the offer will be "activated".

Whereafter we will have to provide the promised service (to the people who have signed up for the offer), gain many customers, help numerous people, whilst deriving the income from the services provided.

My only real concern in this relation is that perhaps we are understaffed; if we receive too many clients all at once.
However we would find a way to manage.

Any additional help is much appreciated.

Much respect.

 

[mryou1]

Yes, there is risk written all over this casting. If you ignore the unconventional step-by-step process I use, the four lines seem to show choices/results. In the first two you don't act on putting up this ad, and in one it leads to no gain/no loss and in the other it is very unfortunate. Then in the top two lines you have sweet articulating vs. bitter articulating, one which possesses honor, the other leads to, again, an unfortunate situation which must be repaired. But I think the biggest thing is to be prepared, clearly expressing connections and boundaries, the main meaning of 60.

Although, I don't run a business, so I wouldn't be the best person to consult. I'm just trying to interpret the I Ching.

 

[he who tries to remember]

Thank you.

Well, it does not matter whether you run a business or not, in my view in the end; if the reading is not favorable, why should we pursue this possibility; it seems to be a waste of time.

In your first message you seemed to call the reading rather favorably, but from what I gather, here, in this second post, nothing really good is indicated by the reading? If so, well thank you, and I will not pursue this venture.

 

[leandroscardoso]

Well, you know people use divination with various theories in mind so I don't really can say you obtained the right hexagram for this question, Imaging you did, the hexagram fits perfectly, you are starting a business and is time to really take care every penny of your assets, as you can't afford a great error. see your inflow of money and, try to not risky too much, I think, if he is your friend, offer a short period for less money, this would be ideal to see if the idea will work. The idea of not paying seems ideal. The hexagram may seem to show difficulties but the Chinese view difficulties as a opportunity to grow (with care, of course). You don't said what his paper is about, take this in consideration; if your advices are not conventional (I imagine they are not because you are at this site) would be good to see if the style of your business "fit" the mood of the paper you are announcing.
Hope I helped my friend.

 

[he who tries to remember]

Thank you. But perhaps I do not completely understand you.

There really is no risk as such; it is free; it is just a matter of gaining admittance to the online paper.

The site/paper is for the general population, although most "readers" are women, which are generally more open minded in terms of making healthy lifestyle changes; our ideas are somewhat alternative, but not without substantiation and merit.

But if this is really not the "right" hexagram, which it appears not to be, why take it any further at all? We will try something else ...

 

[leandroscardoso]

Sorry to not give you a simple no/yes answer, but rarely the world is so simple; there's no 100% in science, we never will name the dao, the better answer of Confucius is study for yourself and get a answer, and all the readings of the I ching should be take with care, not a certain thing... As I said the free option looks like the ideal, at least for a start. Believe me, there's always a risk, as someone intelligently pointed you could have more demand than expected, and unexpected events that are, well, unexpected, may occur.
The simple answer: If you proceed with care (and that's why all this discussion) you should proceed.