You hear entrepreneurs often say that their business is their baby or it’s like one of their children. I’ve never thought of any of the businesses I’ve been involved with as my baby. People who compare a business to a baby are either not parents or have their priorities misplaced. A business can be a great way to provide the means for your family, but I would never put a business on equal importance levels as my children. I understand the concept that you nurture and grow a business, hopefully to some level of maturity, but a business just isn’t comparable to a child. I can see why it seems more important to spend more time on a business than your family, because a business is quantifiable and celebrated by the media. Financial success is celebrated in the news and media and there’s nothing necessarily wrong with financial success, unless it takes you away from what is truly important to you. It’s also easier to work (on a business) than to be with your family because raising kids and working on your marriage is really hard. You don’t know how your kids will turn out until decades later. It’s hard to honestly assess your marriage. But with a business, you get immediate feedback. You can measure it. You make a sale, you know how much you made. You have quantifiable metrics and financial reports. In many ways, working on a business is easier than dealing with than your family responsibilities.
I view a business as a fruit tree or a lake.
Businesses can take many different paths to growth and success. You have to pick the path that you think will help you achieve what you define as success. I believe the slow, steady, natural path is best.
Grow Like a Fruit Tree
It’s true that a business is created and if nurtured will grow. It is more like a fruit tree. A young fruit tree is small, fragile and doesn’t bare much fruit if any. Trees grow slowly. Fruit trees require pruning that may seem counterintuitive. You have to cut back branches and thin the tree to make the tree stronger for next season. It may require stakes to keep it upright. As you do these things it grows and begins to bare more and more good size fruit. All of this takes years of dedication. The roots get stronger over time and the stakes can be removed. As you keep doing these things it continues to bare fruit for you. If you neglect it, it will eventually bare fruit that is no good or die. Business takes time to grow if you want one with strong roots. Fruit trees do not have emotions and personalities and will not make sacrifices for your well being To treat them as such will end in certain disappointment. If you grow them properly, they can produce a harvest that can be sustaining for many people over many seasons.
Public lands and parks are managed by the state parks and wildlife. If there’s a lake, the state fish and game department manage the fish. They will tell you what you can fish for and whether you can keep them or not. It’s regulated to preserve the fish, so the lake is not overfished. A business is like a lake with fish in it. The fish in a lake will naturally reproduce. Some years there might be less fish because of the climate and conditions and some years excess. Over time nature will regulate itself. You can always fish the lake and take fish out. However, if you begin to overfish that lake and deplete the fish faster than they can reproduce, then you lose sustainability. Everyone starts taking too many fish out of the lake and it can’t replenish fast enough and irreversible damage will be caused. Managing a business is like managing a lake in that you can extract as much fish as possible due to short sighted greed because it will eventually become empty. If you want a sustainable lasting business, you need to look far enough into the future and plan and know what your limits are.
Gradual Ascent 