Planting Trees

In life, the most important metric/KPI is steady long term growth. It applies to every aspect of our lives. The richest farmers are not the ones cultivating maize and beans, plants that produce quick gain and finish their life-cycle in a year. No. The richest farmers are the ones cultivating Cocoa, Rubber tree and Palm trees. Trees that grow slowly and almost forever.

Even in the finance and investment world, it's also true. A microfinance bank invests in opportunities that will produce gains in 1 to 3 years. Commercial banks invest in opportunities that will produce gains in 2 to 10 years. The big investment banks focus on opportunities that will produce gains in 10 to 100 years.

Time is the greatest resource. And the best way to use it is in spending it on things that will outlive you. In planting trees. Trees of quality friendship your children and their children will benefit from. Trees of a solid financial plan that will make your money outlive you for the benefits of those you love. Trees of a healthy lifestyle, acorns of daily/weekly exercise, that will make you look and feel great till whatever age you wish to reach. Trees of goodwill and honesty that will inspire people long after you are gone. Trees of hardwork and focus that will get you more than all you need in life.

We all need to plant trees more. To see beyond a week, a month and a year. To not just plant maize and beans. To stop starting all over every year, cultivating and harvesting. To cultivate more now, so we can spend the later part of our lives harvesting.

I've come across people who are obsessed with immediate gain. They work harder than most of us but all spent in planting maize. And every year, they have to repeat the same amount of work. They compare themselves with others and try to match their harvest. They try to squeeze out the most from what they have, and now. They are always in a race, a sprint. Their long term plan is simply to repeat their short term plans more often. To spent less time reaching their harvest, and not to spend more time planting trees.

Unfortunately, I'm like that. I don't even see beyond a month, except in running my finances. I honestly don't know where I'll be in a year's time. I don't invest in quality friendship, in fact, in any friendship at all. My financial plan is to not starve. The only parts I'm doing well in are daily exercises and honesty. And, thanks to my new entrepreneur status, hardwork too. But I hope to start changing slowly. To begin planting a few acorns in my fields of maize.