Business and Money Tips

Why Smart Leaders Fail in the AI Era And How Yijing Leadership & Management Can Help Artificial Intelligence is changing business faster than any technology in history. Yet something surprising is happening.  Some of the smartest leaders are struggling. Not because they lack intelligence.  But because intelligence alone is no longer enough. For decades, leadership was built on knowledge, analysis and experience. Today, AI can analyse faster.  AI remembers more.  AI writes better reports.  AI generates strategies in seconds. If leadership is only about information, AI will always win. So what makes a leader irreplaceable? The answer may have been written over 7,000 years ago. Yijing. The Book of Changes is not a book about predicting the future. It is a book about understanding change.  And change is exactly what every leader faces today. 1. Oneness – Lead with Purpose Many organisations have AI strategies.  Very few have human st...

The 4 Stages of Leadership According to Yijing 1. 元 Yuan – Start Right Leadership Question: Should we begin? Every success starts with a worthy beginning. Before launching a project, hiring someone, entering a partnership or introducing change, a leader must ask: Is this aligned with our purpose? Are the conditions right? Do we have the right people? Why are we doing this? Many projects fail not because of poor execution, but because they should never have started. Leadership lesson: Great leaders don't just start quickly—they start wisely. 2. 亨 Heng – Gain Momentum Leadership Question: How do we keep moving? Once the journey begins, leaders must build momentum. This is where communication, trust, teamwork and problem-solving become critical. People begin encountering resistance. Processes require adjustment. Leaders inspire people to continue despite uncertainty. Leadership lesson: Leadership is about creating momentum, not merely giving instructions...

The Biggest Thing You Miss When You Don't Know Yijing Most people think Yijing is about predicting the future. It isn't. Yijing is about understanding reality before it becomes obvious. If you don't understand Yijing, you may spend your life: Solving the wrong problems. Fighting the wrong battles. Making decisions at the wrong time. Managing people using the wrong approach. Reacting to change instead of anticipating it. Yijing teaches that every situation has its own pattern. Success does not come from working harder. It comes from understanding what this situation requires. The same strategy that succeeds today may fail tomorrow. The same leadership style that inspires one employee may demotivate another. The same business opportunity may be perfect today but disastrous six months later. Yijing teaches us to see these invisible patterns before they become visible to everyone else. That is why, for over 7,000 years, emperors, generals, scholars and business leaders have stu...

Many people see Dear You as a touching story about love, sacrifice and family. But beneath its emotional storyline lies something much deeper—the timeless wisdom of Yijing (I Ching), the oldest classic of Chinese philosophy. Yijing is not merely a book of divination. It is a book about understanding life. It teaches us how to respond wisely to changing situations, how causes create effects, and how seemingly unrelated events are connected as one unfolding journey. Remarkably, these three principles are beautifully manifested throughout Dear You . 1. Act According to the Situation (因时制宜) Yijing teaches that wisdom is not rigid. Every situation calls for a different response. Lan Zhi demonstrates this perfectly. When Mu Sheng is imprisoned, Lan Zhi faces an impossible choice. She could reveal the truth and shatter Shu Rou's hope, or continue writing letters in Mu Sheng's name and send money home, preserving her faith and giving her strength to carry on. She chooses the latter, n...

Why Every Sun Tzu Student Should Learn Yijing Whenever I conduct a course on Sun Tzu's Art of War, participants are often fascinated by the strategies, tactics and timeless wisdom that have guided leaders, generals and businesspeople for over 2,500 years. However, I always remind them of one important fact: Sun Tzu did not create strategic thinking. He inherited it from something much older. That source is Yijing (I Ching), often regarded as the foundation of Chinese philosophy, strategy and leadership thinking. Many people know that Sun Tzu teaches us how to win. But fewer people realize that before we can choose a strategy, we must first understand the situation we are facing. This is where Yijing comes in. Sun Tzu answers the question: "What should I do?" Yijing answers the more fundamental question: "What is really happening?" Think about the decisions leaders face every day: Should I expand or consolidate? Should I confront or cooperate? Should I invest now...

Why Do So Many People Start Life “Wrong” from the Beginning? Most people think Yijing is about fortune telling. But at a deeper level, Yijing is actually about this: 👉 How you begin determines where you end up. In the famous opening of the Qian Hexagram, Yijing speaks of four words: Yuan 元 · Heng 亨 · Li 利 · Zhen 贞 These are not just ancient Chinese words. They are four stages of life, leadership, and success. Yuan 元 — Return to the Essence Most people start from problems, emotions, and appearances. Yijing teaches: 👉 Start from the essence. The real question is not: “What happened?” But: “What is truly at the heart of this situation?” Heng 亨 — Move with Flow Many people work harder and harder… yet life becomes more difficult. Why? 👉 Because effort without alignment creates friction. Wise people understand: timing direction when to move and when not to move Li 利 — Create Value True success is not about winning alone. 👉 It is about creating benefit ...

Why is it that sometimes people listen to you… and sometimes they don’t? Same words. Same intention. Different result. It’s not what you say. It’s how you are wired. In Yijing, we say there are 8 types of human energy . If you use the wrong approach on the wrong person, even the best strategy will fail. 2-Minute Bagua Quick Test  “Write down A, B, C or D for each question. Don’t overthink, choose what you actually do , not what sounds good.” 1. When facing a challenge, you… A. Take control immediately B. Support and stabilise others C. Step back and analyse D. Express ideas and energise people Q2. In a team, you are usually… A. The decision maker B. The dependable supporter C. The cautious thinker D. The communicator Q3. When things go wrong, you… A. Push harder B. Stay patient C. Re-evaluate and analyse D. Talk it through Q4. Your natural strength is… A. Driving results B. Supporting people C. Seeing risks D. Influencing others Q5. Your common weakness… A. T...

Most people think Yijing is about prediction. But at a deeper level, it is about how you see reality—and therefore how you act. And yes, one of its biggest lessons is this: 👉 Reverse the lens. Read from the inside before the outside. 👉 Change the sequence, and you change the meaning. 1. Why Yijing Reads “Inside → Outside” A hexagram is made of two trigrams: Lower trigram = inner state (mind, intention, energy) Upper trigram = outer situation (environment, events, people) So the logic is: Your inner world shapes how the outer world unfolds. Most people read life like this: “What happened to me?” Yijing reads like this: “What is happening within me, that shapes what is happening outside?” 2. The Power of Inversion ( 反看 / 反思 ) Example 1 Normal framing (external first): “She works in a KTV bar.” → Judgment, labels, assumptions. Yijing framing (internal first): “She is a student who chooses to work part-time to support herself.” → Disc...

Most people don’t have a reality problem. They have a starting point problem. This is one of the most misunderstood lessons from the Yijing. In Yijing, a hexagram is read from the bottom up. Lower trigram first. Then upper trigram. Why? Because life is meant to be read from:  inside → outside.  Not the other way round. But today, almost everyone lives inverted. A girl works in a KTV bar.  That’s what people see. But what if you start from inside? She is a student.  Who chooses to work part-time to support herself. Same person. Different world. A man loves another man’s wife.  Sounds wrong. But invert it. He fell in love with a woman… who happens to be married. Same situation. Different human understanding. “I am late for work.”   That’s failure. Invert it. “I am late… and I still choose to show up.” Now it’s responsibility. Nothing changed. Not the facts. Not the events. Only this changed: 👉 Where you start the story,  And that changes everything...

Every time in my training classes, the participants would tell me the following are their 3 biggest issues:  1. Hard to get people to listen and do what you say 2. Getting Compliance 3. Rewards and punishments do not work well as before What you’re seeing in that slide is not a “people problem.” It’s a misalignment problem:  of timing, energy, structure, and human connection. This is exactly where Yijing 6 concepts becomes powerful. Not philosophical, but practical diagnosis + action . 1. Oneness（一体）— Stop Managing in Silos Everything is connected. There is no isolated problem. Why people don’t listen:  Because what you say is not aligned with what they experience elsewhere . A government agency pushes digital transformation.  But:  KPIs still reward risk avoidance and a pproval layers still slow.   Result: People “hear” but don’t act. 👉 Yijing insight: The system is not one. Another example,  HQ says “be innovative”. But middle man...