Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Don't Give Up Just Before the Reward

Years ago I used to garden using containers on my (very small) apartment patio. One of my favorite things to grow was corn because in the hot California climate you could almost see it growing. One time in particular I remember I switched to a different gardening soil that was much thicker than I was used to. The corn took so long to sprout that I was convinced I had a bad batch of seeds. So I start digging little holes again to replant with a new packet, and I find just below the surface bright green sprouts just about to peak out. Had I waited one more day they would have surfaced on their own and I wouldn't have ruined so many perfectly good plants.

I mention this because sometimes in life, business, relationships we put so much work into them and it seems like we sometimes are not getting much back. It can be frustrating to put that much energy and time into something with no guarantee of a return.

The good news though is that no amount of work is ever done in vain. Even if that particular project you are working on does not amount to what you expected, it still came out exactly the way it was meant to. Sometimes all it takes is just a bit more effort, one final sprint, to reach the finish line. So many times I have seen close friends who are just starting out with their own businesses or books and they get so frustrated that all of their advertising and submissions have not gotten them anywhere. Sometimes they are on the verge of quitting outright and going back to their old jobs or throwing away the manuscript, only for their project to just take off the next month. Suddenly they have as many clients as they can take and are having to refer people out or they have three acceptance letters from different publishers and they have to choose who they are going with.

The next time you feel that you have reached the end of your ability to wait any longer for your work to pay off, I implore you to just wait a bit longer and go for one final push first. You may find the sprouts were there all along.

Grant Virtue

No comments:

Post a Comment