Professional opportunity / Yaiks!

[flashlight]

I've been a solopreneur for many years, with all the advantages and downsides that come with it. I like being able to choose my clients and projects, set the volume of work I feel able to take on and the liberty to organize my time to preserve my health as needed as long as I get the work done. Main issue on my mind is to how balance simplifying life / lightening workload with meeting current and future (retirement, not that far off) financial needs.

Drumroll.

A former client contacts me out of the blue. The subject on the table is my joining his new company on the ground floor (salaried or contract hasn't been yet discussed, matters not generally, the upshot would be the same > letting go of my business). Global nomad mindset is a given (I'd not even consider it otherwise).

So I aksed Yi: What kind of effect would joining this company have on my life? 35.6 to 16. Yeah, starting such a business I should think would require advancing with horns and determination, and I need to make sure there is "there there", that it's not just a lot of air. Knowing one of the founders, he's not the type to build sand castles...

I asked further: What do I need to know about this company? 50.2.6 to 62 (and I do dislike 62!) Here again, as with my mattress thread (haven't bought one yet BTW), if 62 is the context, it makes sense -- the devil is in the details and particularly on the financial front. But if it is as others read it the resulting hex, that gives me pause. 50.2 here I don't quite get:
‘The vessel contains something real.
My companions are afflicted,
Cannot come near me.
Good fortune.’
THe middle verses are ominous and contradict the first and last verses.

We're having face to face chat in a few days. I'm lining up my questions and considerations. Your help would be terrific!

 

[Windrell]

Dear Flashlight! I like your name!
I also like to keep things simple and clear! So your essential question is the first:
"What kind of effect would joining this company have on my life?"
I Ching: 35,6<16
Hex 16, is about giving one's submission due to a hearty admiration! Very tempting..
But hex 16 goes through the moving line 6 of hex 35: TO ADVANCE IS AT THE HORN!
The horn is the highest point of an animal,like the top of a hex.
When the advance reaches the top, it turns to masculine rigidity and becomes aggressive like a ram.
To attack one's hometown signifies SELF-reform: this job will change your whole lifestyle!
Line 6 advances to the highest ranking-position, so there is no way to go further!
It must restrain itself from advancing.
TO PERSIST IN ADVANCING WILL BE RESENTED.

If I were you, I would answer "No, thank you".

 

[flashlight]

oh yes, I do anticipate it would change my lifestyle
and perhaps the masculine ram image is linked to the fact, at first, i'd be the only female on the team (before the team grows) so I anticipate I'd have to be assertive to stake my (virtual) turf.
no way to go further could also (here I'm just looking at my life, rather the analysing the lines dispassionately) relate to this would be the very last phase in my professional life. A few years getting this group going and I'd retire.

Lots to think about, huh?

Thanks -- picked Flashlight cause I like to try to keep my headlights on to see where I'm going

 

[ginnie]

What kind of effect would joining this company have on my life? 35.6 to 16.

It's not in error to advance as if with lowered horns, but to go on that way for a long time would not be good. The way is not yet clear. I think you'll need to speak with him further and get clarification on a number of issues. For example, you want to be able to sock away money for retirement, and it would be good if there is some sort of plan in the company to help you do that. That's important. Also, you would need to assess the details or terms to see if you would make more money as an employee or as a contractor. In other words, I see line 35.6 as warning you about being aggressive on a long-term basis, although a little bit of aggressivity at the beginning is not wrong.

I asked further: What do I need to know about this company? 50.2.6 to 62

The I Ching has given you the image of a container, a vessel, for the company. Line 2 moving says it would be a protected position and line 6 moving suggests travel and the auspice is great good fortune. Congratulations! I hope this dream comes true for you.

 

[rosada]

I think 62 gets a bad rap at times. I see it as simply meaning that once you know the truth (hexagram 61. Inner Truth) then the rest is just 62. Details.

So if you know what your inner truth is - what you want - then the details here you need to know are 50.2, what the work and pay is, and 50.6, whether there is a need in the world for what this company would have to offer.

 

[flashlight]

@Ginnie, indeed, we need to have many conversations - and then to meet the team, the "adoption" would have to be with all and bilateral.
@Rosada, being clear on what I want is also a key issue to which I do not have an immediate answer. I am coming out of a very long and dark tunnel of many years which has left me fragile in some ways (head for under the covers!) and health issues mean I do not have the physical energy and resilience I once had (this he knows) - which impedes life when I don't have the yayas to even do pleasurable things I'd like to get back to. That's a big factor in my thinking about this possibility. Intellectually (what needs to be done), the opportunity is like a BIG CHOCOLATE cake. Physically, safeguards would have to be understood and set. Precisely what one normally does not hint at when talking to a potential employer or client! But I'm being above board about it all.
I had not realized 50.6 was a travel indicator, but yes, I should think in the future working with them would require travel as staff would be based anywere.
As an I ching apprentice, these interpretations as well as those on my mattress thread leave me in a bit of a learning curve conundrum as some understandings are diametrically opposed. Like many, I prefer the pleasing answers and would rather discount those that are negative or foreboding. So how does one navigate those contradictions with a view to getting more proficient at readings? This is a real question!!!
I asked a last question last night after reading Windrell's message -- would I be **happy** working with them? And Yi repled 34.1.2.4 to 15, which I understand (and I may be wrong!) as 'don't try to sort and protect everything right from the start, go with the flow some, just stay honest and act with integrity to kep your balance and things in balance'. Did I get that right?
THanks for your help all

 

[rosada]

You might get value from asking the IC how you can become more proficient.

Meanwhile, some tips from my experience:

Have the attitude that you are totally willing to give up your own point of view. That is, don't approach a reading looking for it to validate what you want to be true.

Study the IC . Do the courses Hilary has here on this site.

Most people who become interested in the I Ching start by only reading the lines they got in their toss. To progress you need to know the meaning of the whole hexagram.

Try rewriting the hexagrams in your own words.

Memorize the sequence and be able to recognize each hexagram without having to look it up. This will make consulting easier for you which means you will likely do it more often and thus become better at it.

Keep a record of your readings.

 

[flashlight]

Thanks, Rosada.
Also, maybe, need to trust myself a bit more too (one reason why I hardly ever comment on others' threads - not lack of interest, rather fear of misleading them with erroneous understanding!)

 

[rosada]

Yes, trusting one's self is important. Especially at the beginning before you know better it seems like the Higher Ups are very forgiving. I've had experiences where I saw the right answer in the reading - lost item - but later when I knew more I would not have interpreted the hexagrams in the same way - and I would have never looked in the right place!

 

[diamanda]

would I be **happy** working with them? And Yi repled 34.1.2.4 to 15

34.1 - It would be ominous for you to travel/move for this job. They'll probably trust you (to work from home?).
34.2 - It will be lucky for you to persist in being correct and firm.
34.4 - After initial difficulties and delays, and with lots of patience, you'll be able to travel again.
15 - Things will go well, but don't expect anything very grand.
All in all, things will be difficult for you, also reinforced by 35.6, and will be "ok" in the end.
Sorry I don't see any reference to happiness here, but 15 shows some contentment.

line 6 moving suggests travel

@Ginnie - perhaps you've confused this with line 50.5?

I prefer the pleasing answers and would rather discount those that are negative or foreboding. So how does one navigate those contradictions with a view to getting more proficient at readings

Of course nobody likes foreboding answers! I'll more or less echo Rosada here. Wishful thinking is a big enemy of clarity. And usually the first interpretation that comes to mind is the correct one. Also: read the translation of the answer, and not the translator's comments. There are many more things to learn on the way, but I think this is a good basis.

 

[flashlight]

Thank you Diamanda.

I've scoured around, could you tell me where you see that to travel for this would be ominous (34.1) and that it would become possible again later (34.4), I'm missing that by a mile. The juxtaposition between the two suggest the lifting of some sort of barrier/limitation that I don't grasp.

I don't know the other partners yet, but the leader of the pack I do and pretty well, we've worked together enough in the past. I know what I like and what I can learn from him, and what drives me batty. That too will be part of the conversation!

In any event, if a collaboration begins, I'd enter into it slowly (on a project basis), keeping my business and and seeing where it goes. Major upheaval is not what I am craving for or need at this time of rebuilding/recentering. Freedom and independence have always been what trumps everything else, despite the hardships that can come with them at times (everything has a cost of some sort!)

 

[diamanda]

where you see that to travel for this would be ominous (34.1)

Power in the toes/foot, inauspicious/ominous to advance/attack/journey/expedite/go boldly.
Have a look at this website/hex.34 - very useful, as it lists various translators about each line.
You can clearly see here, for 34.1, that "going somewhere" is ominous.

and that it would become possible again later (34.4)

After line 34.1, you had 34.2, which is a line of patience.
Then, 34.4 is auspicious. The "fence" breaks, and there's no "entanglement".
Here we've got a "big cart" with good axles - a sign of travel.

Perhaps it all refers to exactly what you said, that you're planning to enter into it slowly on a project basis. This approach sounds very favourable - it will be to your advantage to not jump in fully right away. Your exact question on this was if you will be happy working with them. The answer says that slowly, with patience and perseverance, you will be ok with it in the end. Don't let this deter you - resulting 15 is very good for making things happen. It won't make you ecstatically happy, but it's stable and real (which is a very underestimated achievement!).

 

[flashlight]

Thank you for the link to that website, Diamanda, very helpful and for your explanations on 34 and travel. I had not taken that literally, rather thinking the Yi was refering to attitude/behavior/mental state - telling me to chill some as I do tend to launch gung ho into project/get things done mode when something interests me and takes up creative brain space

 

[diamanda]

Well, it may or may not be literal (or, could be both literal and metaphorical). It may indeed refer to attitude, as you say. Only you can decide what applies best to your case.

 

[ginnie]

Global nomad mindset is a given (I'd not even consider it otherwise).

What do I need to know about this company? 50.2.6 to 62 (and I do dislike 62!)

Diamanda asked where I get the idea of travel from line 50.6, and I get it from Hilary's words on line 6 in her book:

"Jade is the most precious material of all, and one that requires many hours and days of painstaking effort to shape and polish. Using it to craft the handle is a sign that the vessel is greatly honoured for its capacity to be moved -- from place to place, and down through the ages."

This seems to me to fit very well with your desire for a "global nomad mindset."

 

[flashlight]

Thanks Ginnie!
This is starting to sound pretty promising (and in feeling that, that's when I have to let 34 kick in ).
50.6 then also fits because what's being built and is to be sold are international from the word go.