Prepare yourself for leadership by storing up and honing your creative powers for a clear and coherent entry onto the public stage rather than unleashing them in a disorganized way. Facing certain opposition, remain uniquely yourself, unwavering in your purpose, yet not reactive to the opposition. Attention to detail with many small victories will realize your goals more completely than sweeping opposition to your adversaries.
The text reads:
“When people live in opposition and estrangement they cannot carry out a great undertaking in common; their points of view diverge too widely. In such circumstances one should above all not proceed brusquely, for that would only increase the existing opposition; instead, one should limit oneself to producing gradual effects in small matters. Here success can still be expected, because the situation is such that the opposition does not preclude all agreement.
In general, opposition appears as an obstruction, but when it represents polarity within a comprehensive whole, it has also its useful and important functions. The oppositions of heaven and earth, spirit and nature, man and woman, when reconciled, bring about the creation and reproduction of life. In the world of visible things, the principle of opposites makes possible the differentiation by categories through which order is brought into the world.”
