Farmers are some of the most patient people in the world. Their trade is based on faith, patience and resilience. When they plant seeds, they do have faith that the seeds will germinate, grow and eventually fruit. They patiently nurture the young crop until it is able to mature, show flowers and eventually turn into a harvest.
They do this with different crops, of different maturities and requiring different types of caring. Yet, a good farmer will faithfully care for his/her farm and crops without the benefit of seeing the end product in advance. It all comes at the tail end of the process or only in a season.
Farming represents the natural order of things. Unfortunately, we are living at an age where many people think there are easier paths to money, wealth and fame. Similar to farming, great athletes, stars in their fields and expertise will all testify to the many hours of labour that go behind the scenes before we witness the short moments of glory. Often, the pay-offs can be extremely huge.
The big mistake many of us are making is to equate these huge pay-offs as only a reward for the short time in action, completely ignoring the hard and sometimes many years of labour that went quietly behind the scenes. For instance, a winner of a 100-meter race is not rewarded for the 10 or so seconds dash. They’ll need to have won the pre-qualifications to the final and many years of training, disciplined exercise and feeding program and character development to obey the rules of the game during the actual competition. That is what is rewarded not just a mere 10-second dash to the finish line.
Here are the lessons to learn from a farmer:
- There will be many nights to live in hope and faith before we notice some good indicators that money is finally coming home – money ultimately follows the back-end work that is done without others noticing. Just like a farmer will work on his/her farm for many days and nights in solitude, so should you be ready to work in a similar manner so that the reward of money may follow later;
- To be a good farmer, you must trust the process and follow the rules – there really are never any shortcuts before harvest. Yes, science and technology have made it easier to enhance productivity given the same factor inputs. But ultimately, a farmer must wait for the entire process to witness the fruits of their labour. When all is said and done, the same rules apply to money and wealth;
- People will talk during the period of your labour as well as after a great harvest – a farmer has to be deaf to what people say to remain focused while he works on his/her farm. Whiners, complainers and naysayers are a part of our human nature. Remain deaf and blind to distractions and keep going. You cannot control what people want to think or say – failure or success, people will still talk, so just focus on your goals and keep moving, however small the progress may seem to be or may actually be;
- Set your sails and control the process – farmers begin by deciding their expected harvest given the crop they are planting and how they control the process/activities involved in farming. In simple terms, farmers start by setting goals and then work backwards through the process of farming itself. This is the same principle when it comes to money and wealth. You can’t be chasing money without any specific targets guiding you -yet this is the reality for most of us. It just never works like that; and
- In case of failure or unexpected outcomes, dust yourself and try again – any farmer understands winning and losing is part of the game. In fact, farming comes with risks -but farmers do not simply quit because they have lost one season. They appreciate and learn from the season losses, but profit immensely from those that they win. In the long term, their diverse farming activities start de-risking each other to maximize profits.
In summary, in the long term, money and your wealth are a pay-off of your patience, faith in the process and resilience to keep moving in whichever direction of the tides.