The Three Paths to Business Growth

Warning: This posts starts a little slowly, but trust me - it's a potent one - and there's a method to it......so read on, stick with it through the end, it'll fall into place, you'll get a huge insight and I'm sure you'll be glad you did.

The law of sowing and reaping. Seedtime and harvest.

It’s one of the eternal, timeless laws that our entire planet, nutrition and sustenance is based on.

It’s also a principle that spans way beyond that, into every area of life.

There is a season for everything under the sun.

Yet if you want to “reap” something, you just can’t expect to do it if you don’t plant the seeds.

Planting the seeds takes faith, trust, hope, hard work and even after you’ve done all of that – a heck of a lot of patience.

Even when your seed start growing, you can’t see it. You just have to know it’s happening and trust that what you planted (and continue to water, tender and nurture) will come to fruition.

There’s no way to bypass natural laws, even in business you may heard of the 15-year “overnight success”, where someone suddenly comes into their own with the majority of people oblivious as to what’s gone into it.

Then there’s the “flash the pan”  superstar   the one who stumbles onto something being in the right place at the right time, and they’re presented with an opportunity however it’s short lasted and they fade away as quickly as they surfaced.

Once the tough times come they don’t have the deep roots that have been strengthened over the years – the character that has been forged, the wisdom to build something lasting – that will underpin their decisions and which are ultimately responsible for overall quality of life.

But even with all of that said, I’ve discovered there are three ways you can approach that.

All three of them will probably get you there eventually, if you persist enough and don’t give up. But they will impact the length of the journey,

There’s no escaping the fact that you need to:

• Buy seed
• Prepare the Soil
• Plant carefully
• Water and Nurture
• Protect your sprouting crop from birds and pests
• Feed your crops
• Get all your harvesting gear
• Plan the way you’re going to harvest so you don’t have a disorganized mess that overwhelms you do start to reap.

There's no escaping that we need to follow the same metaphorical process as we grow our businesses.

And going through all of these, having made plenty of mistakes along the way, I have learned that there are three ways to approach your own business journey of sowing and reaping.

1. Trial and Error.
   With enough persistence and tenacity you will keep going, learn from your mistakes, and figure it out eventually. Although it may take you a very long time, if you keep at it you will get there someday.
   
   
2. Educate Yourself
   Fill yourself with knowledge about “How” to do it – by reading up on all the books published by specialists in soil, seeds, machinery, farming – maybe even the word’s leading authority on which fertilizer is the most effective – and armed with all that information try to figure out how to put all the pieces together. You’ll have a lot of knowledge, which will help you a lot.
   
   
3. Learn from an Expert
   Find someone who has planted the same type of crops that you want.
   Figure out how you can study them, oberve them, listen to what they say, but most importantly what they do. If you can even get to spend time with them and ask them questions.
   
   You’ll see what sort of soil they’re planting in, when is the best time to plant, how they’re looking after their crops, and how long it takes to come to fruition.
   
   Not from a theoretical standpoint, but from someone who is “doing” it. You learn from their mistakes, because they’re the type of people who care and will share this, hear stories from other successful farmers they hang out with so you’re getting inside information that will fast-track your own journey.
   
   You still have to do the work, but you make far less mistakes exponentially increase your chances of short-cutting there sooner.
   
   

I’ve been in all three camps over the last 20 years as a full-time entreprenuer.

I started my first online business in 2001 and made every mistake in the book. Choosing a completely new industry, I pretty much pushed through on grit and determination.

I eventually sold the business 2008 when I was so burned out with it, it had international recognition and lots of publicity and feel good stories, but I struggled to make it profitable without a truckload of work. And I was in the early stages of family life with a toddler and a newborn at the time.  

I did not have a mentor. I didn’t have a community to lean into. I didn’t have personal connection with people who were doing the same journey.

I often wonder what “might have been” if I had understood the power of coaching and mentoring, systems and scaling back then, not from people who were “educators” and filled with knowledge and theory, but people who were in the trenches doing what I was doing, who could have shared “insider information” about how they’re kicking big goals.

Because after all, the digital moves at lightening speed and so by the time something becomes known to the masses and everyone starts doing it, by it’s very nature it probably isn’t effective anymore, meanwhile the pioneers are already onto the next wave.

I’ve done plenty of other things in the meantime and the last 20 years has been frought with many highs and lows, but over the last few years I really believe that I “busted through” because I decided that I was only going to follow the third method, no matter what it cost me.

Two years ago I made a decision to go “all in” into creating a business that was going to support my desire to be the type of parent I wanted to be, and this time I did something very differently.

I hunted down the best in the world in the areas I wanted to excel in and invested till it hurt to learn from them and be around them.

I sought out people who I could see were already doing what I aspired to do – and watched, observed, built relationships, invested, practiced – and yes, still put in an exorbitant amount of work along the way.

But I can truly say that my journey this time, has been so much more empowering because of who I chose to journey with, the insights I have gained and the relationships I’ve built.

Don’t take it lightly. You have a tremendous opportunity here. Make the most of it. Lean in.

Do the work, consistently, and you’ll reap the rewards of a wonderful life by design.