For a few years of my childhood I lived on my grandfather's farm. He used to have me help him plant trees.
I remember saying to him, "Grandpa, we worked hard in the garden this year and I can't wait. I'm going to really enjoy the tomatoes and the carrots and all these vegetables, but what I really want are some of these apples that are going to come on this tree. It seems to me that the tree is pretty little, but I guess because it's a dwarf tree it's still going to have apples."
Grandpa said, "Kenrick, this tree needs to be planted, needs to be nurtured, needs to grow, and mature, and it will be several years before these trees give us apples we can eat."
Our businesses may not require years to grow fruit, however we do need to plant the seeds and nurture our businesses as they grow.
Hard work, time, sweat, investment for more education--these are all things I happily engage in as they all result in a tree with more fruit.
And through growth periods, what can carry us through?
Watching my students over the years as they bear the fruits of their labor as a result of persuasion training is an amazing process. We all grow together, learn from each other, and thrive on the richness of our diverse backgrounds.
Sir Isaac Newton said, "If I have ever made any valuable discoveries, it has been owing more to patient attention than to any other talent."
Patient attention is required especially when we begin to open ourselves up to the limitless possibilities of what there is to learn in life and what we begin to understand we want and need to focus on.
New students tend to get frustrated when learning a new discipline--karate, music theory, a new language--but I caution my students not to be too hard on themselves. Our conscious minds can only hold so much information, but our other than conscious, if we are giving the proper attention and putting in our time, is definitely picking up the slack.
In order to "get it" you need to be present. You have to have the "attention" part in play for it to begin to bear fruit.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches strategies to earn the business of affluent prospects using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion strategies.
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