Growing a business is much like growing a plant. Both need a personal touch, and require patience, perseverance, and are a constant battle between growth and decay.

The early stages of both botany and business are the most labor intensive and critical. Choosing your industry, your soil mix, and the location of your endeavor can make or break your future growth.

When starting a new project, plant or process, the early days are often indicative. Occasionally it seems to shoots up bright, green, and fast. Most commonly however, there's certain degree of boroughing up through mud to reach the the light.

Acknowledge which seeds should fruit quickly, and which seeds to patiently bury deep. This determines when to start over again and re-till the soil, or when pivot and re-fertilize

As a business grows it requires resources, much like sunlight and soil, sales and marketing feed the business and allow for growth. Sometimes the natural landscape can provide everything a plant needs by being the right plant in the right environment. Just how starting with the right mix of people and products can make all the difference in a startup.

Olive Trees like these require pruning once a year in the spring to unburden their inefficient low slow growing branches to create room and resources for new upward shooting growth. Likewise, It's important to take inventory of outdated tools, old habits, and non-contributive team members to allow energy to flow into the blossoming nodes of your business.

Each process yields it's own fruit in due time. Despite the droughts, the infestations, and the cloudy days, each and every one of us are capable of cultivating success in the long run with enough learning, iterations, and personal growth.