One New Year\u2019s Day during my daughter\u2019s college years, she called to\u00a0 tell me about her celebration the night before. \u201cThe party I thought was going to be fun wasn\u2019t,\u201d Jennie said, \u201cand the one I thought was\u00a0 going to be boring was terrific.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat a great metaphor,\u201d I replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, Mom,\u201d she groaned, \u201cyou think\u00a0everything<\/em> is a metaphor.\u201d<\/p>\n She was right, of course. I love metaphor and think they\u2019re highly underrated as learning tools. I\u2019m not alone in thinking so. In his wonderful book, Growing a Business<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, Paul Hawken suggests that the best training for running a business is gardening. I have always found the parallels fascinating and thought of it again when I came across an article about Geri Larkin\u2019s book Plant Seed, Pull Weed<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you need to do, says Larkin, if you want to have a great garden:<\/p>\n 1. Want a great garden<\/p>\n 2. Do what needs doing<\/p>\n 3. See what\u2019s in front of you<\/p>\n 4. Share its abundance<\/p>\n 5. Give it your enthusiasm<\/p>\n 6. Keep the weeds at bay<\/p>\n 7. Have patience<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span>8. Harvest its joys<\/p>\n These steps may sound simple\u2014obvious, even\u2014but they require mindfulness and continuous practice. Just like meditation or gardening or raising baby humans. However, if you want to have a great business you couldn’t find a better outline. Nice metaphor, huh?<\/p>\n The vast majority of success stories are written by the plodders. ~ Paul Hawken<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One New Year\u2019s Day during my daughter\u2019s college years, she called to\u00a0 tell me about her celebration the night before. \u201cThe party I thought was going to be fun wasn\u2019t,\u201d Jennie said, \u201cand the one I thought was\u00a0 going to be boring was terrific.\u201d \u201cWhat a great metaphor,\u201d I replied.\u00a0 \u201cOh, Mom,\u201d she groaned, \u201cyou…<\/p>\n