The Story of the Chinese Bamboo Tree.

Many have heard the story of the Chinese bamboo tree.  I’ve heard variations, but they all boil down to the same philosophical lesson.  As the story goes, to plant a bamboo tree, you take a 12-15 inch stalk from an existing tree.  You dig a hole, and plant it standing up, covering it completely. 

Bamboo trees typically exist in rain forests.  The reason for this is they must be watered daily, and kept moist.  Now, I don’t know all the exact details for growing one, but here is how the story goes. 

After planting, you must water it EVERY DAY.  You cannot miss a day or it will die.  Three times daily, in the morning, at noon, and at night, you must pour a bucket of water on the spot you planted the stalk.  Seems easy…but the problem is it doesn’t seem to grow for five years!  Every day, day in and day out, you must repeat this process.  It seems after a while your efforts are fruitless!  Why isn’t this thing growing?!  But you remember that this is to be expected.  One day, after about a year, your neighbor comes out.  He sees you watering that spot.  He says, “Hi neighbor…I noticed that you’ve been watering that spot for a year now.  What’s going on?”  You reply excitedly, “I planted a Chinese bamboo tree!”  The neighbor nods and walks away.  After the second year passes, the neighbor comes out and says, “I see you’re still watering that spot.  Nothing seems to be growing!”  You reply, “I’ve got faith, I just need to keep watering.”  The neighbor snickers a little and walks away.  After the third year, the neighbor comes back and has a friend with him.  He says, “This is a friend of mine.  He knows some things about gardening, and insists that those things don’t grow around here!  I’m getting concerned.  The whole town is starting to whisper!”  You reply, “No, I still believe this will work.  I just need to keep pressing forward!”  They walk away laughing heartily.  Now, you’re starting to get frustrated.  You’re becoming the laughingstock of your small town.  But you decide you must continue…morning, noon, and night.  Three times a day, water, water, water!  At the end of the fourth year, people are REALLY starting to talk.  The neighbor and many others are thinking you need to be fitted for a straight jacket.  Kids are no longer allowed to play near your house.  You don’t care…What do they know anyway?  At the end of the fifth year, just when everyone is about ready to have you committed to the asylum, something happens!   You see a little sprout arise from the earth.  The sunshine hits the little sprout, and when it gets the light and warmth it needs, it shoots up 90 feet in six weeks!  You did it!!  Despite what the doubters said, you continued to believe and succeeded!  You see, during the first five years, the root system was growing.  No one could see it, but the tree was growing rampantly underground.  The bamboo grows it entire root system before it grows tall.  Now, you toss the bucket aside and climb to the top of the tree.  You’re looking out at the glorious view from the top, and know it was worth the wait.  You then begin to notice the people are starting to gather around.  They look up in amazement and say, “Wow, I didn’t think those things grew around here!  You just got lucky!”  You want to argue back, but you just smile because you know that luck had nothing to do with it!  It was all about patience, persistence, commitment, and a little knowhow.  In this world we live in, people will always want to pull you down.  They may be good folks with good intent, but we must learn to trust ourselves.  A little faith and hope go a long way.  Where there is faith and hope for the future, there is power in the present.  Stop being persuaded by what others call “normal”.  Are you building a business?  Systematically building a network takes time!  It may take months, or it may take years, but if you stop, you will fail.  Are you building a relationship?  This takes time, patience, and effort. 

Always remember the story of the bamboo tree.  Never stop watering!  Build your root system, and it is sure to grow.